LAC expecting 75,000 oz from Bousquet No 2

LAC Minerals (TSE) says gold output from its new Bousquet No. 2 mine near the town of Malartic in northwestern Quebec will reach its planned target of 75,000 oz. this year. Situated less than a mile away from LAC’s Bousquet No. 1 mine, the No. 2 operation is eventually expected to produce at a rate of 140,000 oz. of gold annually.

“Things are going quite well at Bousquet No. 2,” LAC spokesman John Pearson told The Northern Miner. He said ore from the new underground mine is being extracted from the 5th and 6th levels and treated at LAC’s East Malartic mill. A formal commercial production announcement for Bousquet No. 2 is expected later this year, he said.

The new mine initially entered production in June and has been successfully pouring gold since then. “We are currently milling at a rate of 1,400 tons per day,” said Pearson. Probable reserves were last reported at 1.4 million tons grading 0.29 oz. gold per ton.

With nine levels and a shaft depth of 4,084 ft., the Bousquet No. 2 mine was developed on the downward plunge extension of the adjacent LaRonde deposit of Agnico- Eagle Mines (TSE).

Total proven and probable reserves for the LaRonde mine were last reported at 7.3 million tons grading 0.15 oz. Production from the mine was 84,974 oz. in 1989.