Tag Archives: Timmins

Gowest engages Dumas for Bradshaw gold deposit restart

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Gowest Gold has engaged Dumas Contracting Ltd, part of STRACON SA, in a four-year contract to assist with the restart of operations at the Bradshaw gold deposit, in Timmins, Ontario.

Dumas has already begun moving equipment to the site and is rapidly ramping up the mobilisation process, with both Gowest and Dumas targeting the resumption of underground work in April.

Dumas is a leading, full-service mining contractor specialising in mine construction and development, production mining and engineering. It is the primary contractor working at numerous mines throughout the Americas, including several in northern Ontario, Gowest said.

Currently, Bradshaw contains a NI 43‐101 indicated resource estimated at 2.1 Mt grading 6.19 g/t Au for 422,000 oz of gold, and an inferred resource of 3.6 Mt grading 6.47 g/t Au for 755,000 oz of gold. Further, based on the prefeasibility study produced by Stantec on June 9, 2015, Bradshaw contains probable reserves (using a 3 g/t Au cutoff and a gold price of $1,200/oz) of 1.8 Mt grading 4.82 g/t Au for 277,000 oz of gold.

Dan Gagnon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gowest, said: “We are extremely pleased to have Dumas, with their extensive experience and focus on safety, as our long-term partner in restarting mining activities at Bradshaw. At the same time, now that we have the significant financial support of several of our major shareholders, we are also quickly advancing on several related fronts. This includes hiring personnel, mobilising equipment, ordering consumables and other preparations to ensure Bradshaw’s success as the next new gold mine in the Timmins camp.”

The first underground work will focus on the development and production of the initial bulk sample area (East Zone), the development of ventilation infrastructure, as well as the development of a ramp to expand and access new ore zones, Gowest says.

The company is also working towards finalising an agreement for milling Bradshaw’s ore, working with several parties to determine the optimal approach for handling the gold concentrate.

Canada Nickel progresses carbon capture and storage test work for Crawford

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Canada Nickel Company Inc says the latest test work on material from its Crawford project, in Ontario, Canada, supports the incorporation of carbon capture and storage into the develoment.

The company has devised an In-Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonation process, which, it says, is a novel method for accelerated carbon capture and storage that it believes has transformative potential.

The latest test work conducted at Kingston Process Metallurgy (KPM) confirmed that existing process streams can be used for IPT Carbonation, which the company believes should allow it to be timely and cost effectively engineered and incorporated into the project flowsheet.

Crawford is hosted in ultramafic rock, which naturally absorbs and sequesters CO2, according to the company, with the potential to actively capture and sequester carbon being a key consideration in Canada Nickel’s acquisition of the 42 sq.km of target ultramafic rocks in the Timmins area.

Canada Nickel has developed an active process that uses tailings as generated in the milling process and injects a concentrated source of CO2 for a brief period of time. This process, IPT Carbonation, fixes CO2 geologically while the tailings are still in the processing circuit, rather than after they have been finally deposited.

The company believes that, given its relative simplicity, this process could be scaled up with availability of concentrated (rather than atmospheric) sources of CO2, with the CO2 potentially delivered by downstream processing of Crawford concentrates, a wide range of industrial processing activities, green hydrogen production, or carbon capture facilities.

Canada Nickel said: “The process demonstrates the potential to produce NetZero Nickel™ and NetZero Cobalt™ for the electric vehicle industry, NetZero Iron™ and chromium for the stainless steel industry and generate substantial carbon credits during the process. The company believes that the need for a concentrated source of CO2 for this process and the substantial CO2 capture and storage capacity potential of its ultramafic land position could form the basis for an entire Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region.”

The latest results from further lab-scale testing at KPM confirmed that a blend of tailings expected to be produced by Crawford and thickened to an expected operating tailings density could be successfully carbonated with the IPT Carbonation process, the company said. This is a significant result to demonstrate the process at higher solids densities as the pulp density and the tailings residence time will be a key driver of the process capital and operating costs, it explained.

The testing also attempted to understand what ultimate carbon capture potential is possible and the test resulted in 37 t of CO2 captured per tonne of nickel – 34 t of that amount was captured within 25 hours. The 37 t figure is believed to represent a potential maximum and there is no certainty that such amount could be achieved in commercial operation, the company said.

As a result of these results, the integrated feasibility study for the project is expected to be delivered in the June quarter of 2023. This delay, the company says, has no impact on the overall timeline to production, with Canada Nickel continuing to target receipt of permits by mid-2025 with construction to follow.

Mark Selby, Chair and CEO of Canada Nickel, said: “We believe the Crawford project has the potential to be a case study in how critical minerals are developed in Ontario and Canada. Crawford is poised to support the energy transition through the large-scale production of critical minerals, including nickel and cobalt, and to become the sole North American producer of chromium, while also supporting the country’s climate objectives through large-scale carbon capture and storage.”

The company believes the successful incorporation of IPT Carbonation could also potentially allow a portion of its project capital expenditures to become eligible for the carbon capture and storage refundable investment tax credits of 37.5% to 60% from 2022-30 and 18.75% to 30% from 2031-40 announced in the 2022 federal budget documents in Canada.

Selby added: “We look forward to continuing our positive momentum in 2023 as we complete this integrated feasibility study for Crawford, continue to successfully advance the Crawford permitting process, work with our recently appointed financial advisors to advance its overall financing package and aggressively advance our recently acquired Texmont property with its potential for near-term production. We are also excited by our successful tests of the regional exploration potential at Reid, Deloro, Sothman and Reaume which, as they are hosted in the same mineralisation as Crawford, offer the same potential for integrated carbon capture and storage – setting the stage for a Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region.”

Major Drilling’s drilling dominance aim strengthened with new Manitoba office

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Major Drilling has opened a new office in Manitoba, Canada, as it looks to expand its contract drilling services and streamline its operations.

Completed at the end of 2020, the new 29,000 sq.ft (2,694 sq.m) operations head office houses an enlarged maintenance shop, parts warehouse and administrative offices. It also includes a 3.2 ha storage yard.

“We are proud of our long history in Manitoba,” Barry Zerbin, General Manager of Canadian Operations, said. “With our expanded space in Winnipeg, we can better serve our clients throughout the country and continue the specialised drilling results we are known to deliver.”

The new building stands over 8.5 m tall among developments inside the ‘CentrePort’ 8,094 ha inland port and foreign trade zone. The zone is home to North America’s largest tri-modal World Trade Center located in Rosser, part of the Winnipeg metro area, Major Drilling says.

The CentrePort campus positions Major Drilling well logistically. The geographic centre of Canada is mere kilometres from the new building where the shop, maintenance, and support staff supply crews, drills and parts across the country. The new building adds to the already strong and established framework of Major Drilling branches and shops throughout Canada including locations in Flin Flon, Sudbury, Rouyn, Timmins and Yellowknife, the company says.

The new Winnipeg location services Major Drilling’s Canadian operations with 24 offices for administration office staff, the human resources, safety and operations departments, and country managers. The maintenance team, with over a dozen employees, is housed in a 743 sq.m shop containing four full-sized bays with over 7.5 m in ceiling clearance to service all rig types in the Major Drilling fleet. The warehouse team works in a 650 sq.m facility containing inventory and spare parts. The building can also accommodate in-house training schools for additional crews coming aboard to meet client needs.

From left to right: the new Winnipeg branch location includes an 743 sq.m shop containing four full-sized bays with high ceiling clearance to service all rig types in the Major Drilling fleet; 24 offices for administration office staff; and a 650 sq.m foot facility containing inventory and spare parts

Zerbin says the expanded space allows the Winnipeg Branch to service Major Drilling’s clients in the province which include Hudbay Minerals in Flin Flon/Snow Lake; Vale in Thompson; 1911 Gold in Bissett; and Yamana Gold in Monument Bay. It also increases capacity for clients across Canada such as Foran Mining, Nighthawk Gold Corp and Sabina Gold & Silver.

Manitoba is a long-established operations area for Major Drilling. In 1998, the company completed the acquisition of the Midwest group of companies in Canada, which operated for more than 70 years of in central Canada and the Arctic. Midwest was one of the largest drilling companies in Canada with over 115 drills (80 surface, 35 underground).

The new Winnipeg office is opening just as the mining industry enters a projected upcycle in activity, according to Major Drilling.

“In 2021, Major Drilling continues its strategy of dominating specialised drilling across the globe,” the company said.

Gowest Gold heads towards production at Bradshaw with help of Steinert XRT ore sorter

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Gowest Gold is expected to make the leap into production shortly at the Bradshaw gold deposit, in Timmins, Ontario, with all permits secured and a Steinert ore sorter commissioned.

In an update this week, the company said it had received official notice from the Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines that its Mine Production Closure Plan had received final review and filing in accordance with the Ontario Mining Act. This plan provides details for how the Bradshaw mine will be operated and closed, and how the site will eventually be reclaimed once mining activities are completed.

With this permit in hand, Gowest says it has now received all environmental approvals required to bring the mine into commercial production.

On top of this, Gowest said its ore sorter has been commissioned in preparation for sorting the mixed development ore currently stockpiled on surface. This material will be trucked to Northern Sun’s Redstone Mill, in accordance with a toll milling arrangement, where processing is scheduled to begin on the week of November 9.

Gowest previously reported that around 28,000 t of gold-bearing mixed development ore had been collected and stockpiled on site from the company’s ongoing advanced exploration bulk sample program. The company also plans to mine around 15,000 t of stope ore as part of the bulk sample.

The company has previously outlined that run of mine ore from Bradshaw will first be crushed and sent through a dual energy X-ray Transmission ore sorting unit supplied by Steinert US. This was expected to “sharply reduce handling costs and increase gold grades of ore sent for processing”, it said. In a recent presentation, the company said this technology could reportedly double the Bradshaw grade up to 10 g/t Au.

As part of its Phase 1 developments at Bradshaw, Gowest is aiming to ramp up to production of 50,000 oz/y.

Ausenco to work on integrating Glencore Kidd concentrator into Monarch’s Wasamac plan

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Monarch Gold says it has retained Ausenco Engineering Canada to conduct an upgrading study on the Glencore-owned Kidd concentrator in connection with its potential use to treat ore mined from Monarch’s Wasamac gold project in Quebec, Canada.

The study constitutes “Phase 1” of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) recently signed with Glencore Canada, Monarch said.

Under Phase 1, Monarch is to launch a study on upgrading all or part of the Kidd concentrator and related infrastructure with a view to transporting the ore from the Wasamac property to the concentrator by railway for processing and transformation into doré bars. The upgrading study is expected to be completed by October 2020.

The study mandate calls for Ausenco to execute the study in two distinct phases. Phase one will focus on developing high-level costs and financials for two practical project options, whole ore leach and flotation leach, and phase two will develop the preferred option to a prefeasibility study level.

Located in Timmins, Ontario, the Kidd concentrator was built in 1966 with numerous upgrades over the years. It currently processes metal ore to produce copper and zinc concentrates, with the facility having a design rated capacity of 12,500 t/d. The site has incoming and outgoing rail service via Ontario Northland Railway.

Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch, said: “We are excited to be working with an engineering firm like Ausenco, which has produced numerous solid studies and developed successful large mining projects around the globe, including recent and relevant benchmark projects such as Moose River gold (Nova Scotia).

“Ausenco has a strong track record of delivering project studies that go the extra step in optimising the project economics.”

Garry Warren, President North America Project Delivery of Ausenco, said: “Ausenco has a project development ethos centred on cost-effective process and rail design coupled with efficient delivery, driving strong project economics and return on shareholder investment.

“We intend to apply that ethos to provide a differentiated approach for the Wasamac project, one that extracts the maximum value for Monarch and sets the stage to move from the upgrading study into project execution and commercial production.”

The December 2018 feasibility study on Wasamac forecast average annual production of 142,000 oz of gold for 11 years at a cash cost of $550/oz.

Micon to complete South West PEA at Moneta’s Golden Highway project

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Moneta Porcupine Mines has contracted Micon International to complete a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the South West deposit within its Golden Highway project, in Ontario, Canada.

The results of the PEA are due to be delivered later in 2020, with the study set to review several development scenarios for the deposit, the company said.

The South West deposit was recently the subject of a resource update, which resulted in a 58% increase in indicated resources to 472,000 oz within 3.24 Mt at a grade of 4.53 g/t Au, and a 40% increase in inferred resources to 1.06 Moz within 7.3 Mt at 4.37 g/t Au. This assumed underground extraction using a 3 g/t Au cutoff grade.

The company recently completed its 2019/2020 winter drill program early at Golden Highway in order to maintain a healthy and safe work environment for its employees and contractors, in support of efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. A total of 36 holes will have been completed, it said.

Drilling was scheduled to be completed by mid-April and has been successful in testing the resource extensions of the Windjammer South, West Block and 55 deposits as well as intersecting new mineralisation at the Westaway and Halfway targets, according to the company. The core will now be processed in isolation and the results will be released as they become available, Moneta said.

The data and assays from this program will be used for new resource updates for Windjammer South, South West and 55 deposits, plus an initial mineral resource estimate at Westaway.

Gary O’Connor, CEO and Chief Geologist, said: “We will continue the new resource expansion work, however at a slightly slower pace due to the physical distancing of employees.”

The Golden Highway project covers 12 km of prospective ground along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone in the Timmins Gold Camp, of which 4 km hosts the current NI 43-101 mineral resource.