Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Production Start | ... |
Mine Life | 2034 |
Development and construction activities commenced at the Elk Mine in June 2021 and in February 2022, the Company delivered its first ore to New Afton.
The Company based its production decision at the Elk Gold Project on a preliminary economic assessment and not on a feasibility study or pre-feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. As a result, there is increased uncertainty and there are multiple technical and economic risks of failure which are associated with this production decision.
A majority of the proposed expansion of the Elk Mine involves transitioning to underground mining in the future.
Timing and analysis of the underground development is currently ongoing. The Company continues to evaluate all current and historic geological information, which will contribute to the Company’s updated resource estimate and PEA anticipated to be completed prior to the end of calendar 2023. |
Source:
p. 8
Gold Mountain holds its interest in the Elk Gold Project through Elk Gold Mining Corp., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Intrusion related
- Vein / narrow vein
Summary:
The Elk Gold Project is indicative of a reduced intrusive-related, structurally controlled quartz vein system. The gold- and silver-bearing quartz veins have historically been characterized as mesothermal based on fluid inclusion studies. The fluid inclusions within quartz crystals in the veins indicate gold mineralization formed at a minimum temperature of 250°C and a pressure of 2.5 kbar, corresponding to lithostatic pressure at a depth of 7 km (Geiger, 2000). Considerable open space within the veins, not related to weathered pyrite, suggests a much shallower vein emplacement, and more study will be needed to resolve the apparent conflict. The vein systems consist of structurally controlled; narrow, pyritic quartz veins hosted in granitic as well as volcanic rocks near the contact between these two primary lithologies. Emplacement of quartz veins is thought to be related to Tertiary Otter intrusions.
The Property hosts nine zones containing gold mineralization, including Siwash North, Siwash East, Gold Creek, Lake, End, Discovery, South, Bullion, and Nicola.
Gold mineralization occurs within quartz-sulphide veins and stringers, most often within phyllic- and silica-altered Osprey Lake rocks and adjacent phyllic- and silica-altered Nicola volcanic rocks. Pyrite is the most common sulphide (Conroy, 1994), ranging from 5% to 80%, with higher percentages often associated with chalcopyrite and tetrahedrite. Gold occurs asfine-grained free gold (typically le ........
Summary:
Development and construction activities commenced at the Elk Mine in June 2021 and in February 2022, the Company delivered its first ore to New Afton.
In August 2022, the Company moved a significant amount of waste rock in order to implement a revised pit design which maintains a larger minimum mining width and allows for more efficient and selective ore mining. These efforts have resulted in better mining widths and improved ore/waste separation in the last quarter and gold grades have continued to improve toward the end of Q4 2023.
The Elk Gold Project is envisioned to be developed as a conventional open pit mine. The operation will begin as a 70,000 t/a toll milling mine for three years. During Year 3 of operations, a 324,000 t/a mill will be constructed on site, which will commission starting in Year 4.
During Years 1 to 3, mineralized material is excavated from the open pit and placed on a limestone-capped stockpile pad. Material on the stockpile pad will be sampled and assayed for metal accounting before being shipped via highway dump trucks to a nearby mineral processing plant. Numerous potential mineral processing facilities exist within hauling distance of the Elk Gold Project.
Non-mineralized rock will be stockpiled in a rock management storage facility (RMSF) located west of the open pit, which is designed to have a low prominence and have 2H:1V slopes that will be capped with overburden and topsoil upon mine closure.
Flow Sheet:
The Company will be toll-treating the mineralized material from the mine for the first few years of operation, with the intent of building a flotation plant at site for the start of Year 4.
Crushing
Mineralized material from the mining operations will feed a crushing plant that will consist of three stages of crushing. The plant will process 75 t/h of mineralized material, operate 16 hours per day, and produce a final product P80 of 10 mm.
Mineralized material will be stockpiled near the jaw crusher or direct dumped through a 500 mm static grizzly into a dump pocket. Stockpiled mineralized material will be fed into the crusher by a front-end loader. The mineralized material will discharge into a feed hopper. Oversize mineralized material from the static grizzly will be removed for later size reduction using a rock breaker.
The mineralized material from the hopper will be withdrawn by a grizzly feeder with the oversize feeding directly into a 30 x 42 jaw crusher with an installed power of 110 kW. The primary crusher has a closed sized setting (CSS) of 101 mm.
The Screen Feed Conveyor will collect crushed product from both stages of crushing and feed a 1.8 m x 6 m double-deck vibrating screen. The +14 mm mineralized material will be conveyed to the secondary crusher. The -14 mm final product, at an estimated P80 of 10 mm, will discharge onto a conveyor and transferred to a surge bin.
Secondary Crushing
Mineralized material from the secondary crusher feed conveyor will discharge into a cone crusher with an installed power of 160 kW. The secondary crusher will reduce the mineralized material to a nominal product P80 of approximately 42 mm using a CSS of 44 mm. Crushed product will be transferred to the screen feed conveyor and circulated back to the double-deck screen.
Crushed Material Surge Bin
The double-deck screen undersize, with a final P80 product size of 10 mm, will be conveyed to the surge bin. The bin will provide 900 tonnes, or 24 hours, of live storage capacity. A belt feeder, installed with variable frequency drives (VFD) to control the reclaim rate, will feed the grinding circuit at a rate of 42 t/h.
Grinding
The grinding circuit will consist of a 746-kW ball mill operating in reverse closed-circuit with a cluster of hydrocyclones. The grinding circuit will be able to process a nominal throughput of 42 t/h of fresh feed and produce a final product P80 of 150 µm.
The mill discharge will flow into the cyclone feed pump box and combine with the gravity concentrator tailings before being pumped up to a cluster of hydrocyclones for size classification. The coarse underflow will flow by gravity back to the ball mill for additional grinding and the gravity circuit, while the fine overflow, at a final product P80 of 150 µm, will report to the flotation circuit. The hydrocyclones have been designed for a 300% circulating load, with a portion of the feed sent to the gravity concentrator. Gravity concentrate will report to the concentrate thickener, and the gravity tailings back into the cyclone feed pump box.
Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Source:
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Reserves at December 31, 2021:
Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t AuEq for pit-constrained resources and 3.0 g/t AuEq for underground resources.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Measured
|
169,000 t
|
Gold
|
10.3 g/t
|
56,000 oz
|
Measured
|
169,000 t
|
Silver
|
10.9 g/t
|
59,000 oz
|
Measured
|
169,000 t
|
Gold Equivalent
|
10.4 g/t
|
56,000 oz
|
Indicated
|
4,190,000 t
|
Gold
|
5.4 g/t
|
740,000 oz
|
Indicated
|
4,190,000 t
|
Silver
|
11 g/t
|
1,465,000 oz
|
Indicated
|
4,190,000 t
|
Gold Equivalent
|
5.6 g/t
|
750,000 oz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
4,359,000 t
|
Gold
|
5.6 g/t
|
796,000 oz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
4,359,000 t
|
Silver
|
11 g/t
|
1,524,000 oz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
4,359,000 t
|
Gold Equivalent
|
5.8 g/t
|
806,000 oz
|
Inferred
|
1,497,000 t
|
Gold
|
5.3 g/t
|
259,000 oz
|
Inferred
|
1,497,000 t
|
Silver
|
14.4 g/t
|
686,000 oz
|
Inferred
|
1,497,000 t
|
Gold Equivalent
|
5.4 g/t
|
262,000 oz
|
Commodity Production Costs:
| Commodity | 2023 |
Cash costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
......
|
† Net of By-Product.
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Financials:
| Units | 2023 |
Revenue
|
M CAD
| ...... |
Operating Income
|
M CAD
| ...... |
After-tax Income
|
M CAD
| ...... |
EBITDA
|
M CAD
| ...... |
Operating Cash Flow
|
M CAD
| ...... |
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