• Data Access
  • Your Email  
  • Your Email  
Keep me signed in.
Forgot your password?
Close
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Enter the email you signed up with and we'll email it to you.
  • Your Email  
Close
Back
MDO
Mining Data Solutions
  • Home
  • Database
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Sign In
Canada
Totten Mine (Sudbury Operation)

This page is not tailored to
devices with screen width under 750 px.
 Location:
35 km W from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

  Regional Office:
18 Rink Street
Copper Cliff
Ontario, Canada
P0M 1N0
Phone  ...  Subscription required
EmailEmail
WebsiteWeb
Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors
Drill results over 30 g/t Au
Stay on top of recent discoveries.
Search drill results by commodity and grade.
Largest mines in the Americas
Mining and mill throughput capaciites.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Deepest underground mines
Shaft depth and mill throughput data.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Heavy mobile equipment
HME type, model, size and quantity.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Permitting and construction projects
Projects at the permitting or construction stage. Full profiles of select projects.
Mines with remote camps
Camp size, mine location and contacts.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Mines & projects in Canada
A list of country's mines and projects.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

Thank you for browsing through mine profiles compiled by the Mining Data Online team.

Would you like to subcribe or schedule a Demo?
  • Name:
     
  • Company:
     
  • Position:
     
  • Phone:
  • Email:
  • Message:

Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Nickel
  • Copper
  • Cobalt
  • Platinum
  • Palladium
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Mechanized Cut & Fill
  • Transverse stoping
  • Longitudinal stoping
  • Slot-Slash
  • Backfill
Processing
  • Crush & Screen plant
  • Dewatering
  • Granulation
  • Filter press plant
  • Flotation
  • Magnetic separation
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Roasting
Mine Life20 years (as of Jan 1, 2014)
Totten mine is a part of Vale integrated Ontario Operations which also includes (Coleman, Copper Cliff, Creighton and Garson mines), processing and refining facilities (Clarabelle Mill, Copper Cliff Smelter and Nickel Refinery, Port Colborne refining complex), supported by the Clydach Refinery in Wales, and non-operating mines, and non-producing properties.


Owners

Source: p. 6, 72
CompanyInterestOwnership
Vale S.A. 100 % Indirect
Vale conducts nickel operations primarily through wholly-owned subsidiary Vale Canada Limited, which operates two nickel production systems, one in the North Atlantic region and the other in the Asia Pacific region.

Deposit Type

  • Magmatic


Summary:

The Totten deposit is hosted within the Worthington Offset Dyke which extends 12 km south from the SIC. The dyke attains a thickness of 45 m in the Totten Mine area, strikes approximately 045°, and has steep variable dips.

Metasedimentary rocks and the Nipissing meta-gabbro sill underlie the Totten Mine area. The sill is 365 m thick, trends east–west and dips at approximately 65° to the southeast. The Worthington Offset cuts both the metasedimentary rocks and the gabbro sill. Late quartz diabase and olivine diabase dykes crosscut all lithologies.

The contact between meta-gabbro and Worthington Offset Dyke is characterized by a meta-gabbro breccia with fragments up to 10 m diameter. Locally the meta-gabbro is invaded by an inclusion quartz diorite stockwork and mineralized stringers. These breccia and stockwork features are not developed in metasedimentary rocks.

Two quartz diabase dykes occur in the immediate vicinity of the Totten Mine and bound the majority of the high-grade mineralization hosted in the Totten Main orebody. The quartz diabase dykes are steeply dipping and vary in thickness from <3–10 m. Quartz diabase dykes are generally fractured especially along the contacts resulting in local poor ground conditions. Several olivine diabase dykes of variable width occur to the north of the Totten Main orebody.

STRUCTURE
The Worthington Offset has been displaced by two major faults. The Creighton fault strikes east-west, is vertical to steeply dipping to the north, and dextrally displaces the Worthington Offset Dyke by approximately 1 km. The Murray fault also strikes east–west, is vertically dipping and dextrally displaces the Worthington Offset by approximately 1 km.

Between the Creighton and Murray faults the local rock mass has been subjected to northwest-southeast fracturing and weak faulting. Minor displacement occurred locally on some of the larger fractures.

MINERALIZATION
Copper–nickel–PGE–gold sulphides are hosted within an inclusion quartz diorite phase of the Worthington Offset. This sulphide zone consists of variable thicknesses of massive and semimassive copper–nickel-bearing sulphides surrounded by a disseminated and blebby sulphide halo.

The massive sulphide varies in true thickness from 2–15 m and is dominantly pyrrhotite and pentlandite. The massive sulphide thins and splays into 2.5 cm to 1 m thick copper-rich stringer zones within the disseminated sulphide halo. Semi-massive sulphides are also typically pyrrhotite and pentlandite rich, but are spatially associated with chalcopyrite-rich patches. In areas where large meta-gabbro inclusions are present, metal grades tended to be higher than in portions of the dyke containing only amphibolite inclusions.

Thick, localized accumulations of ore are situated to the north and south of the quartz diabase dykes. Nickel and copper mineralization become progressively higher grade with depth and towards the core of the mineralization.

PGE–gold minerals are spatially associated with more copper-rich sulphides. Platinum and palladium grades increase with depth but the gold grade does not. The highest PGE–gold grades are concentrated at depth around a portion of the southernmost quartz diabase dyke.

Mineral zone boundaries are locally characterized by arsenic-bearing minerals such as niccolite and gersdorffite. Niccolite stringers are also encountered in the quartz diabase dyke and sometimes in quartz diorite and inclusion quartz diorite proximal to the Worthington Offset.


Mining Methods

  • Mechanized Cut & Fill
  • Transverse stoping
  • Longitudinal stoping
  • Slot-Slash
  • Backfill


Summary:

Totten Mine is located in Worthington, Ontario, 15 km west of Sudbury. The Totten Mine deposits consists of the actively mined Totten Main (215), and other mineralized zones including the 230, 260, 242, 235, 238, 238 West, Howland, and McIntyre zones.

The 1,260 m (4130 ft) deep #2 Shaft is the primary entry and exit point into the mine for personnel, materials and ore/waste.

The secondary means of egress is a ladder system from surface down to the 4530 Level. A ramp has been connected to shaft access levels on the 3850 and 3150 Levels and it serves as second egress for the workings between the 3150 and 3800 Levels. Apart from the shaft, ramp access now exists from the 4650 to 2330 Levels. When ramp development is completed, mine will have ramp access from the 1850 to 4630 Levels.

Slot–slash and Mechanized cut-and-fill mining methods are employed for ore extraction. Most of the main ore body at the Totten Mine is mined using transverse primary–secondary stoping. Longitudinal stoping is used in narrow portions of orebodies and in stopes adjacent to trap dykes.

Alluvial sands are used for backfilling.

Loading equipment includes 7.2 t, 9 t and 5.4 t capacity LHDs. Smaller 2.3–3.2 t LHDs are used as utility equipment.

The dewatering system design at Totten consists of two main sump stations and level settling sumps. The main sump stations are located on the 2,000 and 4,000 Levels; settling sumps are located on all main production levels. The main pumping station on the 2,000 Level discharges to surface at a rate of 800 gallons/minute. Water is pumped via the shaft up to the 2,000 Level and then from the 2,000 Level sump station up through boreholes to the 1,850 Level and then to surface.

Ventilation System consist of one major fresh air system and one main return air system and has 685 kcfm capacity.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Crush & Screen plant
  • Dewatering
  • Granulation
  • Filter press plant
  • Flotation
  • Magnetic separation
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Roasting

Flow Sheet: Subscription required

Summary:

The process plant design was based on a combination of metallurgical testwork and familiarity gained during historical processing. The Clarabelle Mill was originally built in 1971 and subsequently underwent a number of major modifications. The hourly design throughput of the plant was based on a yearly throughput of approximately 8 M tons. The utilization calculation was that the plant would operate 350 days per year, with an availability of 92%, for a net utilization of 88.2%. In 2017, the crushing plant and rod mill circuit was put on care and maintenance and the Clarabelle Mill became a SAG-only operating plant. The yearly throughput based on SAG-only operation is approximately 6.0 Mt.

At the concentrator, the ore is crushed and ground and fed to the froth-flotation cells. The multistaged froth flotation separates the sulphide minerals into a nickel concentrate and a copper concentrate. The tailings are disposed of in tailings ponds. The nickel concentrate typically aver ........


Combined production numbers are reported under Sudbury Operation

Operational Metrics:

Metrics202120202019201820172016
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required669 kt710 kt710 kt671 kt
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at December 31, 2021:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGrade
Measured & Indicated 719 kt Nickel 0.95 %
Measured & Indicated 719 kt Copper 1.27 %
Measured & Indicated 719 kt Cobalt 0.02 %
Measured & Indicated 719 kt Platinum 1.53 g/t
Measured & Indicated 719 kt Palladium 0.72 g/t
Measured & Indicated 719 kt Gold 0.49 g/t
Inferred 398 kt Nickel 1.2 %
Inferred 398 kt Copper 1.9 %
Inferred 398 kt Cobalt 0.03 %
Inferred 398 kt Platinum 1.2 g/t
Inferred 398 kt Palladium 1.3 g/t
Inferred 398 kt Gold 0.3 g/t


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 2, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 2, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 2, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 2, 2022
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Technical Report 2022
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
Form 20-F 2018
Form 20-F 2017
Form 20-F 2017
Form 20-F 2015
Form 20-F 2014
Other 2010
Project Description 2010
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Aerial view:

Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Terms of Use Privacy Policy © 2017-2022 MDO Data Online Inc.