new gold mine in guysborough county will create an estimated 735 jobs
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kevin bullock, president and ceo of nexgold mining, speaks to reporters in halifax on wednesday, aug. 27, 2025, after it was announced that his company had received industrial approval for a gold mine in goldboro, guysborough county.
francis campbell
the provincial environment department announced the industrial approval wednesday for a new gold mine in guysborough county that is expected to create 735 jobs and contribute $2.1 billion to nova scotia’s gross domestic product.
“the goldboro mining project was initiated in 2018 and this approval comes after eight years of consultation and study, along with scientific work by qualified professionals, engineers and other subject matter experts,” andrew murphy, associate deputy minister of the provincial department, said at a technical briefing at one government place in downtown halifax.
“extensive science, studies and evidence have led us to where we are today, an industrial approval with stringent terms and conditions that were formed by those eight years of study, science and consultation.”
janice zinck, executive director of natural resources at the nova scotia natural resources department, and andrew murphy, associate deputy minister of the department, speak at a technical briefing on the approval of the goldboro gold mine on wednesday, aug. 27, 2025, in halifax.
francis campbell
the goldboro mine project, first registered for environmental assessment in august 2018, received that approval in august 2022. nex gold mining corp., a canadian company based in toronto, applied for industrial approval for the project a year later.
the province issued a mineral lease to nexgold in july 2024 and leased 779 hectares of crown land to the company in may of this year.
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the crown land lease is for the development of a gold mine in rural guysborough county, near the eastern coast of the province and about 75 kilometres southeast of antigonish. part of the mine will be on crown land and part will be on company-owned land.
the project is projected to generate $1.1 billion in direct and indirect household income in nova scotia over 15 years as well as about $528 million in tax revenue – $274 million provincial, $44 million municipal and $209 million federal.
total spending on the project is estimated to be $1.7 billion.
the company also has benefits agreements with the municipality of the district of guysborough and the assembly of nova scotia mi’kmaw chiefs.
14 years of gold operation
kevin bullock, president and ceo of nexgold, said the company has had a lot of consultation with the mi’kmaq of nova scotia and the municipality.
“we’ve come to our agreements, our mutual benefits agreements,” bullock said. “both sides are very happy and committed to doing this project, fully respecting the environment and for having an opportunity for the community and the mi’kmaq.”
bullock said there are financial implications to the agreements but did not disclose what those are.
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he said there are many phases to a gold mining project, including permitting and finance. bullock said the company does not yet have all the federal approvals required but expects them to be in place within the next 90 days.
“our goal is to start building next year and then it will be a two-year build, then there will be about 14 years of production,” bullock said.
bullock said the current industrial and environmental approvals cover 15 years from the building stage to the operational phase and the remediation process.
“we have a lot of ground around our current resources, a lot of opportunity for expansion, so i would think within the next 15 years, we’ll do a lot of exploration work on an ongoing basis to discover more and extend the mine life. we think this is going to be a multi-decade mine.”
bullock said the plan is to extract about 100,000 ounces of gold per year for about 11 years and then stockpile 60,000 or fewer ounces at the end for a total of 1.1 million ounces overall in open-pit mining.
“there is the potential for future underground (mining) and on-strike further open pits,” he said.
cleaning up afterwards
bullock said that amount of gold extraction would make the goldboro development a relatively small open-pit mine in canada, with a very small footprint within one watershed.
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the company has submitted a reclamation bond of $41 million and a detailed reclamation plan with estimated costs. the bond is to be updated every three years to ensure that it continues to be sufficient into the future to remediate the site.
bullock said there will be more jobs in the building phase than in the operational mining phase but both phases will create a substantial number of jobs in a depressed, rural area.
“we hope to bring nova scotians home that are working away, we hope to bring nova scotians to an area where there is not a lot going on, we hope to create opportunity in that area,” bullock said.
he said the company is planning an employee housing facility on site to house workers and it will incentivize workers to build in the area with some grants.
the mine industrial approval required surface water and groundwater quality predictions and mitigation measures, a waste rock and historic tailings management plan, site layout and design plans, air and noise monitoring plans, and mitigations and emergency response plans.
environment department inspectors promote compliance with industrial approval measures and planned and unannounced inspections will take place at the mine site.
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upon conclusion of an investigation, enforced compliance could result in a summary ticket offence or a ministerial order.
the province says mining accounts for at least 2,500 jobs in nova scotia that pay an average of $100,000 per year in wages and benefits.
notably absent from the briefing were any members of the majority progressive conservative government.
alyse hand, a provincial government communications specialist who hosted the briefing, explained that the news conference was “purely a technical briefing” about the science that informed the industrial approval decision.
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