The Canamax game plan goes as follows: like most other junior explorers, the company first focuses on promising exploration projects. It then sets an “economic hurdle,” such as establishing that a property has a minimum of 100,000 recoverable ounces of gold, given a reasonable tonnage and grade. Overcoming that hurdle triggers the next step — a production decision. Canamax doesn’t drill “the thing to death,” as President John Hansuld once said. The game plan is clearly a good one. It has worked near Timmins on the Bell Creek property, which started producing gold last year, and it has also been the framework that is enabling Canamax to prepare two other properties for production this year (see pages 39 and 33).
The inaugural dore bar from the Bell Creek workings was poured in the fall of last year. The mine should produce about 25,000 oz annually. How long the mine will run before reserves are depleted is difficult to say. Current reserves in the proven and probable category have been set at a shade less than a million tons grading 0.185 oz per ton.
However, the reserve figure should increase as exploration continues. Past experience with Timmins-camp mines suggests that initial reserve figures have little relation to ultimate mineable reserves. And this is a typical Timmins-type deposit with quartz vein mineralization cutting carbonatized volcanic rocks. Bell Creek Notebook Location: ……. Timmins, Ont. Major Owners: ……. Canamax Resources (50%) and Pamorex Minerals (50%) Commmodities: ……. gold and silver Discovery date: ……. 1981 Production decision: ……. 1986 Start-up: ……. 1987 Capital costs: …….. $20 million Operating costs: ……. $240(US) per oz Reserves: ……. 995,000 tons at 0.185 oz gold per ton (proven and
probable) Means of access: …….. 3-compartment shaft to 918 ft Extent of vertical workings: ……. unavailable Mining method: ……. sublevel retreat, shrinkage stoping Mining equipment: …… track and trackless Production rate: ……. 385 tons per day Milling plans: ……. on-site gravity and cyanidation Major contractors: ……. Canamax-operated Status: ……. production
Be the first to comment on "A BREAKNECK PACE Bell Creek"