The Fenelon Mine Property is located in the northwestern Archean Abitibi Subprovince in the southern Superior Province of the Canadian Shield.

Metamorphic belts like the Abitibi are complex regions where accretion or collision has added to, or thickened, continental crust. Gold-rich deposits can be formed at all stages of orogen evolution, so that evolving metamorphic belts contain diverse gold deposit types that may be juxtaposed or overprint each other.

Two types of gold mineralization have been recognized:
- A wide and generally auriferous sulphide-poor quartz vein stockwork formed in the hanging wall of the SLDZ. The sulphide-poor quartz vein stockworks observed in the hanging wall have subvertical north or south dips and are parallel to a series of east-west trending high-strain zones. These veins form a weak stockwork and are boudinaged and/or folded.
- Gold mineralization that overprints the early auriferous stockwork, principally in the hanging wall of the SLDZ, with a higher sulphide content. The sulphiderich gold mineralization predominantly fills structural sites in deformed quartz veins, fractures and veins crosscutting the foliation fabric, but also in pillow breccias and selvages. The distribution of sulphide-rich mineralization is strongly controlled by the geometry of kinematic orientation (i.e., pyrite and pyrrhotite concentrations have a shallow westerly plunge similar to the plunge of the main flexure zone in the SLDZ at an ........

Based on the nature and geometry of the Fenelon deposit, three different mining methods should be employed: long hole, uppers, and drift and fill.

Longhole mining consists of drilling a series of vertical holes in the ore from one level to the other. The ore is then blasted in vertical slices. The ore is retrieved from the bottom drift using remote scoop trams. For every horizontal level (approximately 15 m floor to floor), a primary slot (drop raise) is excavated at the extremity of the stope. Blasting of the stope (which can vary between 5 to 30 m in length) is achieved following a longitudinal retreating fashion. All the broken ore is extracted before another blast is taken to ensure a maximum recovery of ore, should any unplanned caving occur. Once the stope is empty, waste rock is used to refill the opened excavation as non-cemented rock fill. In order to blast the second stope on the same level, once again a drop raise is pulled as a primary opening. The second stope is then blasted, mucked and backfilled. The process is repeated until the entire level is mined out.

The uppers longhole open stope mining method differs slightly from traditional longhole. Although the recovery is generally not as good, it is a preferred method in areas where the excavation of a top sill proves to be uneconomic. The longhole drilling and loading of the holes takes place at the bottom sill. Once again, a primary slot is excavated at the extremity of the stope and blas ........

- subscription is required.

- subscription is required.