Local News

Generation Mining Starts Early Works at Marathon. The Money Is In.

Keenan Hutka October 8, 2026 2 minutes read

MARATHON – October 8, 2026 – Generation Mining has started early construction at its copper-palladium project about 10 kilometres north of Marathon, and says the financing stack for the build is now complete.

Early works run through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. That means road upgrades, clearing, water-management structures, a bigger camp, a temporary fuel farm and site offices, earthworks, aggregate, and temporary power. The company has posted $6.5 million in financial assurance for this phase, matched to the specific tasks, and has already paid $30 million toward equipment under a wider $150 million purchase plan: crushers, mills, flotation gear, thickeners, cranes.

The last piece of the package, announced this week, is about $340 million, including roughly $140 million in equity from the Canada Growth Fund and $50 million in debt from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Chief executive Jamie Levy called it the final funding needed for a fully financed construction package. Chief financial officer Brian Jennings put the whole capital stack at about $1.3 billion. Glencore has agreed to buy the polymetallic concentrate, with processing aimed at the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda and Glencore’s CCR refinery.

A November feasibility study put the net present value at $1.07 billion over a 13-year mine life, with expected output of about 2.1 million ounces of palladium and 532 million pounds of copper, plus platinum, gold and silver. The company also finished this year’s regional exploration program. Soil samples at Four Dams and Lacobeer returned copper above 300 parts per million in a dozen spots, one of them at 3,280.

None of that is ore in a rail car. It is a cleared site, a camp, and public money in the financing. Marathon sits on the north shore, on the highway between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. If the schedule holds, this is the first northwest mine in years to move from a feasibility study to shovels with the capital actually raised.