The thickness is very good for Val d'Or mineralization. Also, very strong underground grade and at shallow depths.
I don't know exactly how deep the open pit is, but it looks to be maybe about 500 ft. If somewhat in the ballpark, it means that a lot of the Bedard Dyke ore is located at open pit depth. It would mean that we get:
1) to perform underground methods (more accurate mining method for this property);
2) at open pit depths (for a significant portion of the area);
3) and get to work with underground grades (and nice widths) at the same time.
That's a very nice mining combination.
Let's take a glance at the traveling requirements.
Of course, they will need to exact the ore and move it through the decline and out the Bedard Dyke portal. Now it's not clear to me as to which path they will take to get the ore to mill level. I'm guessing they will drive the material through the pit while ramping it upwards to mill level (as oppose to taking it immediately to the surface before trucking it to the mill). There are some efficiencies gained by moving the material vertically and horizontally at the same time, I would assume.
As we know, Sigma West and the Bedard Dyke is located on the west/southwest side of the open pit. The milling operation appears to be located on the east side of the pit (almost to the very end, but not quite). The distance from the Bedard Dyke portal to the milling area appears to be about 2500 ft (eyeballing). The pit curves so extra trucking length needs to be factored in. Let's add 1500 ft to account for the curves. Of course, if they truck it within the pit (as I'm thinking they will) the lane curves should be substantially less. However, let's be extra conservative and use the 1500 ft figure. We then need to account for the 500 ft pit depth. This might be reduced, depending on which level of the pit the portal is located on.
Anyway, let's use 2500 ft plus 1500 ft for road curves plus 500 ft for pit depth. That equals 4500 ft of surface traveling to move the material (from the portal) to the mill area, once the material is moved from the underground to the portal. I believe a mile has 5280 ft. As such, the surface distance to move the material to the milling area appears to be 85% of 1 mile (4500 ft / 5280).
At a high level, there appears to be some very strong economics here:
1) shallow mineralization
2) use of underground mining methods
3) good widths (especially for local mining camp)
4) good underground grades (especially strong for such shallow depths)
5) existing portal and decline
6) less than one mile surface traveling (includes travel upwards and curves in travel path)
7) both underground and surface traveling can be done entirely on Century's property, even under the highway and under the city - no slowdowns from surface highway traffic, etc.
2 comments:
I have a note about the declines.
We know that the Lamaque 2 decline is an existing decline. I think that has been mentioned a few times in company DD reports. The Lamaque 2 decline will give us access to the 1.7M Cross-Over Zone ounces, whenever we begin mining those ounces. Also, I remember reading that there are some other ounces within the decline itself. Maybe these are the 20K ounces (plus 6M Inferred) we have booked as P&P Reserves for "Lamaque #2 Mine.
Now, it appears as if the Bedard Dyke and the North Wall declines are different from the Lamaque 2 decline. I recall the Jan'09 DD report stating that those 2 declines are new. It didn't elaborate though. We don't know if they are already in place or if have to be built.
My guess is that some work will be required. Now, I recalled (from first half of 2008) the company talking about establishing the Bedard Dyke portal. It sounded like they were able to establish that portal before the crisis hit. I'm just not quite clear how far they were able to get with the decline itself.
Now, I also recall that the Jan'09 DD report had scheduled one month for work on the Bedard Dyke portal, while simultaneously working on development work. This might suggest that some Bedard Dyke/Sigma West decline work needs to be done (or finished off) prior to start up of mining.
This is likely why they are looking to begin mining ore in March instead of February. They probably need to do some preparation work, which likely includes some normal pre-mining drill work to better define the targeted reserves to be mined, development work in the localized (targeted) ore areas and work on advancement of the decline.
I hope they can soon announce that the power is back up and running. They will obviously be very limited until they have power, even if they have some generators.
Production, from the DB-CMM Agreement, Century is planning to do a 15,000 tonne bulk sample from Bedard Dyke, but will need a permit for this which won't be issued until some other work (as detailed below) is completed.
PART II Material Permits to be Obtained
1. Lamaque Exploration CofA authorizing the bulk sample mining of the Sigma West
region, better known as the Bedard Dyke.
• Allows the bulk sample mining of the Sigma West region better known as the Bedard
Dyke (15,000 tonnes).
• Noise survey - Completed November 2008
• Crown pillar stability certification - Completed January 2009
• Submission to Ministry Completed
• Ministry reviewed and is prepared to issue permit upon completion of the following
items:
o Waste oil removal from mine site - Completed April 21 st, 2009
o Used tire removal from mine site - Completed May 5th, 2009
o General Site Cleanup - Completed May 5th, 2009
o B2 tailings dam exposed too much water - Completed March-May 2009
o Re-seeding of B2 slopes - Completed
o Tailings Dam's water mark benchmarks - Completed
o Re-slope, spread topsoil & seed Waste dump. West slope followed by North &
South slopes - Ongoing waste removal, topsoil and seeding following winter
o Complete B I tailings lift and install spillway - Proposals received, work to
commence upon thaw
• Issuance of permit expected upon completion of above.
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