Ascot Resources (TSX: AOT; US-OTC: AOTVF) has begun ore processing at its Premier gold project near Stewart, B.C., with the first gold pour planned for later this month.
“The start of ore processing is a momentous achievement for the whole team at Ascot and an exciting milestone for the company,” said president and CEO Derek White. “Most project construction activities are substantially completed, and commissioning activities are ongoing throughout the processing plant with the aim of pouring first gold this month.”
Rock was introduced to the grinding circuit on March 31, and the first ore was fed on April 5.
Feeding waste rock into the grinding circuit padded the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) and ball mill liners with barren material. When that step was completed, the grinding system was re-torqued and gold-bearing ore was fed into the circuit. Commissioning activities continue on the gravity and leaching circuits, the carbon regenerations circuit, the elution circuit, cyanide destruction facility, and the gold room.
The tailings storage facility, new water treatment plant, tailings thickener, and pipeline systems are all ready for operation.
The Premier underground gold mine opened in 1918 and included four deposits mines – Silver Coin, Big Missouri, Premier, and Red Mountain. It was the largest gold mine in North America until the surface buildings burned down in 1956. The Premier mill was rebuilt in 1989 and mining resumed until the project was put on care and maintenance in 1996.
The project is located on Nisga’a Nation Treaty Lands in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia.
Currently, mining has begun from the Silver Coin and Big Missouri deposits to feed a refurbished 2,500 tonnes per day processing plant. Mining of the Red Mountain deposit will begin in year three, and then from the Premier deposit. Low-cost long-hole stoping is planned for most of the mines, and ore will be trucked to the mill and waste will be returned underground as rockfill and cemented rockfill.
The refurbished processing plant uses conventional crushing, grinding, and gravity circuits followed by a standard carbon-in-leach (CIL) process to produce doré bar. An energy-efficient fine grinding ball mill and an additional pre-leach thickener to facilitate a finer grind of the hard ore. The tailings dam was also raised to increase capacity.
Total gold production from the Premier project is estimated at 1.1 million oz. of gold and 3 million oz. of silver. Measured and indicated resources total 7.3 million tonnes grading 7.85 grams gold per tonne and 29 grams silver. The total inferred material is 5.4 million tonnes grading 7.11 grams gold and 27.1 grams silver. Proven and probable reserves – 6.2 million tonnes at 5.89 grams gold and 19.7 grams silver – are included in the measured and indicated total.
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