Bell Creek is a part of the Timmins operation which is also includes the Timmins West mine, which both feed the Bell Creek mill.
Bell Creek Mill produces gold in the form of doré bars. The bars are a blend from the Timmins West Mine and Bell Creek. The doré bar’s historical weighted average gold grade has been 84.9% and has ranged between 61.6% and 91.7%.
Bell Creek consists mainly of multiple nearly parallel narrow gold veins that are steeply dipping. This steepness of the veins allows for longhole extraction methods. Main mining veins trend East-West with some convergence observed between the 1185mL and down to 1450mL, including some north-south trending.
The Bell Creek mineral reserves will continue to be extracted using underground mining methods and is accessed via the existing shaft and portal/ramp from surface.
The primary access to the underground workings will continue to be via the existing Bell Creek shaft, and ore and waste rock will be trucked to the existing 1000mL grizzly/rockbreaker station for sizing and subsequent skipping to surface. Secondary access/egress to/from the underground are via the existing portal and ramp to surface, and internal raises equipped with escape ways.
Shaft and Hoisting Facilities
The existing shaft is a 6.3 m by 2.6 m rectangular, three compartment shaft. The top 290m of the shaft have timber sets installed, while the remaining 760m have fabricated steel sets. Shaft statio ........
