Newmont Mining has yet to commence its Hope Bay operations in Canada, but it is now bullish to expand within the mine area and tap new reserves within the area.

The company, which has been working on the Doris North gold deposit at its Hope Bay property near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada, has proposed a second phase expansion plan for the property that will pave for two other underground open-pit sites south of Doris North.

Newmont Mining Corporation acquired Hope Bay in 2008. Located in Northern Canada, Hope Bay, an 80 kilometer district holding up to 9 million ounces gold potential in the Canadian Arctic, is touted as one of the last known undeveloped greenstone belts in the world. In its website, Newmont Mining Corporation said it controls 100 per cent of the belt and exploration success over the last few years continues to confirm the district's significant long-term potential.

However, Newmont Mining Corporation did not specify details and estimated cost expenditures for the expansion of the Doris North gold deposit, although it did imply the expansion would require construction of new airstrips and all-weather roads, the CBC News reported.

Newmont Mining Corporation has submitted its proposal before the Nunavut Impact Review Board for screening. It has been also simultaneously put up on the board's online registry for public comment.

"We have to look at how this mine and these mining plans would interact with or impact on the environment and the people in the region. So we need to understand the cumulative effects of this project, in relation to Doris North, and in relation to the region," the CBC News quoted Ryan Barry, the review board's executive director, as saying.

Newmont Mining Corporation is a gold producer with significant assets in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico. Founded in 1921 and publicly traded since 1925, it is one of the world's largest gold producers and is the only gold company included in the S&P 500 Index and Fortune 500.

The Hope Bay gold project is expected to come into production between 2012 and 2017, along with seven other mines, including the Jericho Diamond Mine, Izok, High Lake, the Lupin gold mine, Goose and the Hackett silver and zinc mine.