Friday, November 6, 2009

Bedard Dyke - bits and pieces of info

The Bedard Dyke will likely be the first location to be mined (in month 4 after start up).

Jul. 11’05 NR: “A combination of reconnaissance, mapping in the open pit, and two historic diamond drill
holes led to the discovery.”

Drill hole #1: 24 metres of 12.8 g/t gold

Drill hole #2: 64 metres of 14.9 g/t gold

Based on a verbal presentation, corporate presentations and other info, it is clear that there was at least one subsequent expansion drill hole. This 3rd hole confirmed the presence of at least 3 sizeable high grade zones within the Bedard Dyke. The high grade zones are located at various levels along the dyke. The technical DD expert believes that the dyke likely goes down as far as 1000 ft from the surface.

There was also some (limited) mining done on the Bedard Dyke adjoining (or adjacent to) the pit wall while the Sigma pit was in production. This limited (test) mining likely provided valuable information about the Bedard Dyke.

Conventional long hole open stoping methods will be used to mine the Bedard Dyke, which allows for less waste material to be transferred, and subsequently should help in reducing cash cost per oz.

Jan’09 DD (bankable) rpt: “The Bedard Dyke and North Wall zones are to be mined using conventional long hole open stoping methods (LHOS).”

“Century’s re-evaluation of the LHOS method will permit mined stopes to be filled with development waste thereby reducing geotechnical risks and reducing waste transport requirements.”

The next 3 comments suggest that the Bedard Dyke includes at least some bulk mineable ore tonnage (with high grades). As we know, bulk mining is far cheaper to perform – the high grade ore and location of within 1000 ft (300 m) of the surface simply makes the mining economics that much better.

1) Jan’09 DD (bankable) rpt: “the bulk ores contained in the Bedard Dyke (Sigma West)”

2) Jul. 11’05 NR: “The Bédard Dyke can be accessed from the wall of the open pit, and because of the near-vertical nature of the structure, it can be easily mined by large-tonnage underground techniques. Historically, shears of this type in the Sigma and Lamaque Mines were extensively exploited in the underground workings.”

3) Jul. 11’05 NR: “….dyke of the type historically known to host high-grade mineralization in the Sigma-Lamaque Complex

Jul. 15’05 NR: “similar dykes at the Sigma-Lamaque Complex have historically produced several hundred thousand tonnes of gold ore”

The Bedard dyke will be accessed through the Sigma pit.

Having made all of those points, I must note also that without current drill updates it is impossible for us to know how many ore tonnes will be accessible right away and when the high grade zones will be drilled and available for mining. Hopefully they will begin to provide some of the more specific mining details once they begin issue drill results.

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