Seabright milestone in N.S. mining history

Several hundred people recently witnessed an historic event in Nova Scotia’s mining industry, the return to gold production after 40 years. The last significant commercial production in the province was in 1947, when 844 oz were produced by Cons. Mining and Smelting at Caribou, Halifax Cty.

Seabright Resources marked the opening of its Gays River regional processing facility with the pour of a gold bar weighing 543 oz. Results of earlier tests indicate that the bar will be at least 90% pure gold, with the remainder being mostly silver and copper. Seabright acquired the mill in 1985 for only $3.5 million, 1/10th of its replacement value. The mill was built in the 1970s by Esso Resources Canada to process lead/zinc ore from the Gays River mine. With very little additional expenditure, Seabright converted the mill to process gold ores.

The gold in the bar was extracted from 8,000 tons of development muck taken from Seabright’s deposits in Forest Hill, Guysborough Cty., and Beaver Dam, Halifax Cty.

But the bar doesn’t represent grades of the deposits, according to David B. Armstrong, Seabright’s vice-president mining operations. “Bulk sample material is now being trucked from Forest Hill to confirm grade,” he said.

The gold in the bar came from the mill’s gravity circuit, which recovered about 60% of the gold in the milled material. The remaining 40% is in a flotation-derived concentrate that carries 300 g gold per tonne (8.9 oz per ton). Thus, the total amount of gold from the 8,000-ton sample was about 908 oz, or 0.11 oz per ton.

“After the first run, we modified the equipment to recover as much gold as possible in the gravity circuit, because that’s where the best return is,” said Mr Armstrong. “All the bugs are now out of the milling process. In our most recent work, about 70% of the Forest Hill gold is recovered by gravity and 25% in the flotation circuit.” Total recoveries are 95%. A significant step

“Opening the mill is a very significant step, because the reactivation of the mill combined with the mine at Forest Hill and the many other deposits of both Seabright and other companies really ties the whole thing together as the beginning of a new era for gold production and refining in Nova Scotia,” says Dr Jack Garnett, Seabright’s senior vice-president administration.

“The public’s uncertainty about Nova Scotia gold should disappear with this combination of an important Canadian gold mine at Forest Hill in association with the Gays River processing facility.”

In his address, the Hon Joel Matheson, Nova Scotia Minister of Mines and Energy, noted that Seabright’s initiative has encouraged other companies to take a new look at the province’s goldfields, and that this interest will be an important boost to the economy of the province, bringing new business opportunities and spinoff benefits.

He forecast that $80 million will be spent on exploration and mine development in the province this year, as compared to estimates of $6 million in New Brunswick and $20 million in Newfoundland.

“Seabright has invested $45 million in Nova Scotia since 1981, and we’ll invest a further $40 million by the end of this year,” Terence Coughlan, Seabright’s president, told the crowd of shareholders, stock brokers and mining industry people at the ceremony. The Gays River mill has put Seabright in position to apply for a mining licence from the provincial mines department several years ahead of a normal mine development schedule. Five years of production

“We’ll be producing four or five bars like this one each month from Forest Hill alone, and next year it’ll be five to seven bars a month,” said Mr Coughlan. Five years of production are now outlined at Forest Hill, where exploration started in September, 1985.

“Seabright has proven reserves of 400,000 tons grading 0.5 oz at Forest Hill,” said Mr Coughlan, “and those reserves will increase over the next year.”

At Beaver Dam, where exploration started in November, 1985, three million tons of reserves grading 0.72 oz have been delineated, with about 1.5 million tons of it in the probable category.

Seabright’s Caribou property will be in production by the end of the year, p redicted Mr Coughlan, and Moose River will be producing within three years.

To honor a geologist who was instrumental in unravelling the complexities of the Forest Hill deposit, Mr Coughlan announced that the vein formerly known as the No 2 had been renamed the Ken Adams vein.

In 1982, Northumberland Mines of Toronto poured 540 oz of gold in mill tests of its Cochrane Hill property in Guysborough Cty., N.S.