Deposit Type
Sleeping Giant is a sulphide-rich lode gold deposit of volcanogenic affinity. In a geochemistry study of the volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits in the Abitibi belt, Gaboury and Pearson (2008) classified the Sleeping Giant Rhyolite as “F1 type”, which includes VMS deposits rich in gold and silver. Such deposits, which have the particularity of being spatially isolated, are probably the result of local hydrothermal processes (Gaboury, 2004). The Sleeping Giant deposit displays atypical characteristics of orogenic Archean deposits associated with major faults. According to Gaboury (1999), gold-bearing veins formed in subhorizontal strata shortly after QFP injections but before the end of mafic magmatism. All rock types, including gold-bearing veins, have been affected by regional ductile deformation (folding of strata and development of schistosity) and metamorphism to the greenschist facies.

Mineralization styles
The sections below describe the following styles of gold mineralization found in the Sleeping Giant mine: (1) gold-bearing veins (economically the most important), (2) stratabound gold-bearing, (3) SE-NW veinlet arrays, and (4) veining within the QFP dykes. The last two styles are uneconomic, but they are significant in establishing the controls and timing of gold mineralization.

Gold-bearing veins
Gold-bearing sulphide-quartz veins (the most economically important) are generally massive, ranging from a few ........

A mining plan has been prepared to extract 325,000 tonnes of reserves over a 4-year period including one year of pre-production (25,000 tonnes) followed by the three years with an annual production of 100,000 tonnes per year. The remaining 14,221 tonnes of reserves, not extracted by this mining plan, will be extracted later in subsequent operations following additional exploration and development work. There are good possibilities of extending the production period by doing additional exploration work on the indicated resources excluded from the mining plan and on the inferred resources and converting the latter into measured or indicated resources and eventually into reserves.

The mineralization is typically in narrow veins. The dip varies between 30o and 80o. The mining methods will be shrinkage and room and pillars. The long-hole method is not favored but will be used where the other methods are not adequate.

- subscription is required.

- subscription is required.