HALIFAX — A gold mine in eastern Nova Scotia received its final permit approval from the provincial government on Wednesday, seven years after the project was first submitted for environmental scrutiny.
Construction of the open-pit Goldboro gold mine, owned by Toronto-based NexGold Mining Corp., is expected to begin in Guysborough County in 2026, government officials said. The project is estimated to cost $1.7 billion.
The latest provincial authorization — called an industrial approval — sets environmental conditions on the operations of the mine.
Goldboro's approval comes after the government announced in June it would accelerate the environmental review process for mining and other resource projects. Premier Tim Houston said at the time he wanted to accelerate resource development to boost the province's economy during the trade war with the United States.
Andrew Murphy, the Environment Department’s associate deputy minister, said the approval requires extensive groundwater, air quality and noise monitoring programs. “The project includes a commitment to progressive reclamation throughout the life of the project with final site reclamation and post-closure monitoring,” he said.
Murphy told reporters that a “large" team working under the new accelerated review rules helped push the mine's industrial approval forward. He said the team is made up of specialized staff including a dedicated manager, engineers, hydrologists and senior level inspectors.
“I don’t think we’ve relaxed any terms and conditions, this approval contains … conditions that are informed by the eight years of science, study and consultation that predated this work,” Murphy said.
He confirmed that the company has a site reclamation bond of $41 million — to be used to restore the land once mining ends — that is required to be updated every three years to ensure that “it continues to be sufficient into the future.”
Officials say the mine is expected to generate about $528 million in tax revenue over 15 years and create 230 on-site jobs as well as hundreds of spinoff jobs. They said the company is also to pay an annual royalty to the province of one per cent of its net revenue.
The company, which is now waiting on federal environmental approval, has benefits agreements with the Municipality of the District of Guysborough and the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, although details of those agreements were not released Wednesday.
Kevin Bullock, NexGold’s CEO and president, said the company expects to get federal approval within the next 90 days, adding that project financing will then have to be secured before work can begin by mid to late next year.
“Until you have your permits it’s difficult to raise the funds to build a project,” said Bullock.
He said the $1.7-billion estimate for the mine is a few years old, and the actual cost will likely be higher once work gets underway.
Bullock said the plan is for a two-year build phase followed by about 14 years of production, with about 100,000 ounces of gold extracted each year for the first 11 years of work.
Gold mining was done in the Goldboro area in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the plan for a new mine has drawn heavy criticism from environmentalists worried about damage to wetlands and the potential contamination of water courses.
“In the era of climate emergency, gold mining is one of the last things human beings should be doing anymore,” said Ray Plourde, wilderness coordinator at the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre. Gold mining, he added, “is one of the worst things that we do in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.”
“There is a cost to the atmosphere and there is a cost to the local environment where the open pits are created,” Plourde said.
The province has leased 779 hectares of Crown land to NexGold for the mine, with part of the mine on Crown land and part on land the company owns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
