Page 14 Contd from pg 12 to gold activi ty The site has been explored and drilled since the early 1900 s by a number of companies and the focus of the mines and minerals division of the Ontario government As the history of the project begins to bear fruit company ofcials are busy negotiating contracts with various suppliers and service providers from across the region mostly in Sudbury and T immins IAMGOLD describes the site as characterized by gentle hills for ests lakes and rivers The Project area is located on two subwatersheds the Mollie River system and the Me somikenda River system Addition ally the continental watershed divide is located south of the Project proper ty with the nearest boundary located southwest and more than 35 km from the proposed open pit locatio n Land use in the area consists of recreational activities by locals and tourists in cluding fshing camping and hunting It is also extensively used for sustain able harvesting of timber IAMGOLD currently produces about 800000 ounces of gold annually from four mines on three continents Investor confdence in IAMGOLD is strong In conjunction with the NI43 101 report issuance and the Sumito mo cash payment the company also announced in November that lenders were prepared to extend additional Cote Pr oject bigger than expected Page 14 credit In fact they doubled their op erating line IAMGOLD announced it has amend ed its revolving credit facility with the amount increased to 500 mil lion from 250 million and the term extended to 2023 The commitments are secured by a syndicate of lenders led by National Bank of Canada and Deutsche Bank AG Canada Branch and including Citibank NA Cana dian Branch Mor gan Stanley Senior Funding Inc Royal Bank of Canada The T orontoDominion Bank BNP Paribas Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Resources Quebec Inc and Export Development Canada T o provide additional fnancial fex ibility the term s of the Corporate Fa cility were also modifed to provide the option of securing a further 100 million through an accordion feature as well as providing leasing for up to 250 million up from 125 million The doubling of our credit facility together with the other fnancing op tions available provide us with ample fnancial fexibility at a time when our or ganic growth projects have gained signifcant traction said Carol Ban ducci EVP and Chief Financial Of cer Our balance sheet is strong with 715 million in cash cash equivalents and shortterm investments and our longterm debt of 400 millio n is not due until 2025 The 500 million Corporate Facility will expire in January 2023 and the 100 million accordion is available under the same terms and conditions On the operational side in an efort to strengthen its workforce and man agement team IAMGOLD recently initiated an internal leadership train ing program that they are calli ng ILA short for IAMGOLD Leadership Academy In addition IAMGOLD continued to build its profle in northeaster n Ontar io by sponsoring the 1st Annual YMP Y oung Mining Professionals T oron to Chapter Mine T our at Glencore s Nickel Rim South Mine in Sudbury In September 2018 President and CEO Stephen Letwin told a T immins Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the project will be bigger than they expect He said the project will generate more than 9 billion in economic activity over the estimated 17year life of the mine as well as generating billions in payroll Letwin said this would create a positive impact on the economies of T immins Sudbury Gogama and Northern Ontario The project is huge It s going to generate over 9 billion in economic activity in the region 39 billion in wages said Letwin The project we think will take about two years to build It will create about 1000 construction jobs about 400 to 500 fulltime jobs over the long term And it will have obviously a domino efect on the industry going forward he predicted A company update revealed that con struction for the new mine is slated to begin in 2019 and the company is looking to hire the right people During this time Cote Gold will be recruiting for key managem ent and supervisory roles in mining geology operations and maintenance as well as support roles said the company newsletter