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Canada

Eagle River Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Longhole stoping
  • Alimak
  • Sub-level open stoping (SLOS)
Backfill type ... Lock
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Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotEagle River Gold Mining Complex consists of the Eagle River Mine an underground operating mine with mineral assets, the Mishi Mine an open pit mine presently not in production but with mineral resources, and Eagle River Mill the common processing facilities.
Related AssetEagle River Complex

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. 100 % Indirect

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Mesothermal

Summary:

Both the Eagle River and Mishi deposits are mesothermal lode gold deposits hosted by Archean Greenstone Belts.

The Eagle River deposit has been described as a vein type deposit along a regional deformation zone with discrete brittle-ductile shears localized along lithological contacts (Heather 1986 and 1991).

Gold bearing quartz veins at Eagle River are hosted primarily by subvertical to steeply north dipping east-west striking shear zones within an elliptical quartz diorite stock with dimensions of 2.0 kilometres east-west and 0.5 kilometres north- south.

The quartz diorite stock intrudes a steeply dipping north-facing sequence of thin mafic to intermediate volcanic flows, flow breccias and interflow volcaniclastic rocks.

A number of different ore zones have been distinguished that constitute different segments of the overall shear zone corridor and each has its own gold grade characteristic. Mineable portions of the individual zones form ore shoots that plunge steeply to the east. The bulk of the historic production has come from Zone 8 and Zone 6, which are entirely within the intrusive quartz diorite, while Zone 2 mineralization is hosted in sheared mafic volcanic rocks just east of the stock.

In general, the ore shoots mined to date occur at a spacing of 400 metres along a 2.4 kilometre strikelength. They appear to be spatially related to an array of oblique 110º striking mafic dykes, which pre-date mineralization and deflect into and out of the shear zones.

Gold mineralization is structurally concentrated within highly strained portions of the various quartz veins. Ore microscopy (Clemson, 1989; Johnston, 1990) indicates that 60% of the gold occurs along quartz-sericite grain contacts, 32% along sulphide-gangue contacts and 1.4% within sulphide grains. The grains are generally less than 500 microns, free milling and 40 to 60% recoverable by gravity methods. Gold grains less than 5 microns account for a negligible percent of the total gold. Free gold generally occurs as a multitude of fine grains which result in a relatively low sub sampling variance generating very good assay precision for a vein type gold deposit.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

CommodityUnits2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Gold oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe88,617 67,315 50,996 40,252 41,013 
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics202320222021202020192018201720162015
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe122,405 t185,171 t157,250 t170,369 t173,189 t
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jul 23, 2024
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EmployeesYear
...... Subscription required 2022
...... Subscription required 2021

Aerial view:

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