1) Good to see they will be providing a monthly Lamaque update.
2) Initiated drilling on the remaining 8 holes at the Bedard Dyke. It`s good to see they were able to finalize the new contract and have the new contractor on site drilling so quickly, with one hole already completed. Fyi, there appears to be a lot of drills turning right now in the Val d`Or area - seems to be a high profile place to be drilling right now.
3) ``....Bedard Dyke...., with the first hole completed and visible gold identified in the drill core.`` It`s definitely a good thing when one starts identifying visible gold in the drill cores.
4) ``The drill program is designed to provide block model information for the dyke, which will allow mine planning to be completed on the area in the next four weeks.`` I think this has the potential of being very positive. They are saying that they expect to complete the mine plan on this area of the Bedard Dyke within the next 4 weeks. It likely suggests that they already have some very detailed info on this Bedard Dyke area (and may have more in time, from the holes being drilled now). Typically, firm mining plans are generated mainly for P&P reserve ounces. If they don`t have enough info to call these particular Bedard Dyke ounces ``P&P reserve`` as yet then they at least have solid info (they wouldn`t have been able to complete a mining plan otherwise). This is extremely encouraging.
5) Having the Bedard Dyke mining plan completed by the end of February will allow for good timing with regards to development work. We know the Bedard Dyke portal is in place, however the decline and mining areas will need to be developed. Some areas may not need as much development, especially the areas easily accessible in the pit wall.
6) Century appears to ramping up well at Lamaque. I believe they are eventually targeting 250 people once they get to full production. They now have 16 staff and 34 hourly employees. That`s 50 people (miners, management, supervisors, mill operators, etc.) already at Lamaque. It represents 20% of full production level. They plan to hire 50 more in February (excluding new staff hires in February). That would bring the total to at least 100, thus increasing the (end of February) people count to 40% of full production level.
7) This is a positive development: ``Additionally, the Company has started the upgrade work on the crushing circuit in the mill facility to adjust the capacity to approximately 3,000 tpd, and expects to complete this project in the next 8-10 weeks.`` They are now thinking that the crushing might be in place at some point between early April and mid April. This has been moved up from late April.
8) Mining from Lamaque 2 area is looking to be getting very close (it`s our most advance mining area to begin with): ``Power has been restored to the mine offices, shops and mill facility, and the main haulage way (Lamaque #2 Portal) into the mine has been re-opened.``
9) If stockpiling of ore from the Lamaque 2 access area goes well in March and first half of April and the new crushing circuit goes smoothly into place by mid April, we could realistically be pouring gold at some point in the second half of April (a bit more than 2.5 months from today).
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