The company was founded in 1988 as Goldpac Investments. Between 1994 and 1999, it operated as Brimstone Gold Corp., a consulting and investment company in the gold mining industry. The company was renamed Foxpoint Resources Ltd. as it sought to acquire and develop its own gold mining property. In 2001, the Vancouver-based Foxpoint Resources purchased several mining properties from
Kinross Gold around
Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The $5 million purchase included several former mines:
Macassa Mine,
Lakeshore Mine,
Wright Hargreaves and
Teck Hughes. The company renamed itself again as Kirkland Lake Gold and re-commissioned the underground Macassa Mine. As it continued new exploration, it was able to begin extracting gold from the mine in 2003. Kirkland Lake Gold focused on developing its Macassa mine until 2015 when it acquired St. Andrew Goldfields with its three mines (the
Holt Complex) about 100 km from Kirkland Lake, in an all-stock deal worth $178 million. In 2016, pressure from
activist shareholders seeking more aggressive expansion led to changes in management to expand the company's holdings. Later that year, the company acquired Vancouver-based Newmarket Gold Inc., which owned the
Cosmo mine in the
Northern Territory and the
Fosterville and
Stawell Gold Mines in
Victoria, Australia, for $1.01-billion in stock. Kirkland Lake Gold listed stocks on the
Australian Securities Exchange effective November 30, 2017. On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Kirkland Lake Gold was promoted to the
S&P/TSX 60 index effective September 23, 2019. Within a few months, the company acquired
Detour Gold in a $4.9-billion purchase. In February 2022, Kirkland Lake Gold merged with
Agnico Eagle Mines Limited in an all-stock deal with Kirkland's stocks being delisted.
Carbon footprint ==See also==