Overview
Status | Care and Maintenance |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Mine Life | 17.6 years (as of Jan 1, 2011) |
Galore Creek is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold-silver deposits.
The Galore Creek Project is currently in care and maintenance, managing environment, social and permit conditions.
Work informing the prefeasibility study, including value engineering to understand opportunities to de- risk and improve project economics, will continue through 2024, with the feasibility study targeted to start in the fourth quarter of 2024. We continue to work closely with the Tahltan Central Government to incorporate Tahltan knowledge and experience into the project design. Strategic, technical and commercial assessments for the advancement of Galore Creek, including focused field programs, permitting and community engagement work, are ongoing. |
Source:
p. 36
The Galore Creek project is owned by the Galore Creek Partnership, a 50:50 partnership between Teck and Newmont Corporation, and is managed by Galore Creek Mining Corporation (GCMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Galore Creek Partnership.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Porphyry
- Breccia pipe / Stockwork
- Vein / narrow vein
Summary:
The Galore Creek property is interpreted to be an example of an alkalic porphyry copper–gold–silver system.
The Project is situated within the Stikine Terrane, an exotic terrane accreted to the ancestral North American craton. A sequence of Permian, Mississippian and Devonian age calc-alkaline and bimodal flows and volcaniclastic rocks, interbedded carbonate and minor shale and chert, termed the Stikine assemblage, form the basement of the terrane. Unconformably overlying the Stikine assemblage is a succession of Lower to Middle Triassic sedimentary and upper Triassic volcanic rocks.
The Galore Creek Syenite Complex, of Tertiary age, is centered in the west fork of Galore Creek and is 5 km in length and 2 km in width. The deposits are hosted by potassium-enriched volcanic rocks and pipe-like breccias adjacent to syenite stocks and dykes. They are manto-shaped, and trend north to northeast, following either, or both, syenite contacts and structural breaks. To date, 14 deposits and prospects have been identified, five of which, the Central Zone, Southwest Zone, Junction Zone West Fork Zone and Middle Creek Zone are of economic interest.
Disseminated pyrite is the most abundant sulphide mineral. Chalcopyrite and bornite in the ratio 10:1 are the main copper minerals. Sphalerite and galena are associated with garnet-rich areas and trace amounts of molybdenite, native silver, native gold and tetrahedrite have been noted (Allen, 1966). Magnetite occ ........
Summary:
The proposed Project will be a conventional, large-tonnage, open-pit operation with approximately 528 Mt of ore processed over the life-of-mine, at a nominal daily throughput of 95,000 t/d.
The mine plan for Galore Creek deposits was based on mining six separate phases that were developed from detailed designs based on optimized WhittleTM pit shells for four open pits, at Central, Junction, West Fork, and Southwest.
The production schedule contains one year of pre-production and envisages a mine life of 17.6 years, exclusive of that pre-production year. Annual mine production of ore and waste will peak at 136 Mt/a with a LOM waste/ore stripping ratio of 2.16-to-1.
The mine sequence for Galore Creek deposits is based on mining the six separate phases. The three-phase Central pit is scheduled to produce ore throughout the mine life with the satellite, Southwest, West Fork, and Junction pits supplementing ore production at various stages of the mine life. The Southwest pit will begin production at the start of the schedule to take advantage of lower waste stripping requirements and higher grades. The Southwest pit is also located south of the dendritic water flow allowing additional time for water diversion measures to be implemented. Mining of the Junction pit will begin later in the mine life, as it is located in a higher, more operationally challenging, area. Mining in the Junction pit will occur after mine operations have had several years o ........
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Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Pipelines and Water Supply
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Projected Production:
Commodity | Product | Units | Avg. Annual | LOM |
Copper
|
Concentrate
|
kt
| | 10,002 |
Copper
|
Payable metal
|
M lbs
| 322 | 5,950 |
Gold
|
Payable metal
|
koz
| ...... | ...... |
Silver
|
Payable metal
|
koz
| ...... | ...... |
* According to 2011 study.
Reserves at December 31, 2023:
The resources reported in 2023 are unchanged from 2022 and have been constrained by an optimized pit shell that is used to confirm the reasonable prospect for eventual economic extraction requirements for reporting mineral resources and commodity prices of US$3.15/lb copper, US$1,600/oz gold and US$20.00/oz silver. A net smelter return (net of processing costs) with a greater than $0/tonne cut-off was applied to report mineral resources within the resultant pit shell.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Measured
|
425,600 kt
|
Copper
|
0.44 %
|
4,200 M lbs
|
Measured
|
425,600 kt
|
Gold
|
0.29 g/t
|
4,000 koz
|
Measured
|
425,600 kt
|
Silver
|
4.08 g/t
|
55,800 koz
|
Indicated
|
771,200 kt
|
Copper
|
0.47 %
|
8,000 M lbs
|
Indicated
|
771,200 kt
|
Gold
|
0.22 g/t
|
5,400 koz
|
Indicated
|
771,200 kt
|
Silver
|
4.77 g/t
|
118,200 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
1,196,800 kt
|
Copper
|
0.46 %
|
12,200 M lbs
|
Measured & Indicated
|
1,196,800 kt
|
Gold
|
0.25 g/t
|
9,440 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
1,196,800 kt
|
Silver
|
4.52 g/t
|
174,000 koz
|
Inferred
|
237,800 kt
|
Copper
|
0.26 %
|
1,400 M lbs
|
Inferred
|
237,800 kt
|
Gold
|
0.19 g/t
|
1,440 koz
|
Inferred
|
237,800 kt
|
Silver
|
2.6 g/t
|
19,800 koz
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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