Monument Ready To Commission Selinsing Gold Mine

VANCOUVER — Monument Mining (MMY-V, MMTMF-O) is on the cusp of producing gold in Malaysia, having permitted, designed, financed and nearly finished building the Selinsing mine in just over two years.

Monument acquired the project, which is 150 km north of Kuala Lumpur in Pahang state, in mid-2007. Despite losing a $10-million credit line last year, the company is almost ready to commission a 1,200-tonne-per-day mill and gravity recovery circuit at the site and has started on a parallel carbon-in-leach (CIL) facility.

For the gravity circuit, the jaw and cone crushers and the ball mill are installed and ready for commissioning, as are most elevator and conveyor components. The contract miner has already started pre-stripping operations, though the outcropping deposit does not require significant prestrip. Once operational, the plant will produce 40,000 oz. gold annually.

Commissioning was scheduled to begin in late August; the company still needs government power supplier Tenaga Nasional Berhard to connect the project to the grid. Poles for the new line have already been installed and the line is currently being hung.

Monument initially planned to build the gravity circuit and the CIL circuits simultaneously, using the proceeds from a $28-million financing and a $10-million credit facility, both of which closed in mid-2008. Once it received government approval to build the mine, Monument’s board approved a development decision and a $17-million budget. But a few months later, the lenders told Monument they were unable to provide the line of credit because of the global recession.

Monument hunkered down and, in February, the company unveiled a new way forward: it would build the 1,200-tonne-per-day plant in two phases, starting with the gravity circuit and adding the CIL circuit later.

Monument is spending just $10 million building the gravity circuit and expects to need only $7 million more to add the CIL circuit. Construction of the CIL circuit is under way and Monument expects it to be operational before the end of the year.

The deposit at Selinsing occurs along the north-striking Raub Bentong Suture, a major fault that runs through peninsular Malaysia. The Suture hosts the largest gold deposits in Malaysia, include the Raub and Penjom gold mines that have each produced more than 1 million oz. gold and are expected to produce that much again. Mineralization is hosted by a series of quartz veins and stockworks of quartz veinlets in a package of sheared calcareous epiclastic sediments.

The area has seen intermittent mining for more than a century. During that time, underground and open-pit operations produced some 85,000 oz. gold; between 2003 and 2008, heap-leach treatment of historic tailings has produced another 1,000 oz. gold.

Monument is also exploring the Buffalo Reef project, which covers land adjacent to Selinsing to the north. The land has historically been divided between several landowners, a situation that frustrated exploration efforts. Now Monument has consolidated the fragmented land package and is being rewarded for its efforts.

The first two drill programs at Buffalo Reef returned promising intercepts. In phase one, hole 3 cut 13 metres of 5.76 grams gold from 41 metres depth, hole 4 hit 2 metres of 7.77 grams gold at 43 metres, hole 11 returned 7 metres of 5.51 grams gold from 19 metres down-hole, and hole 16 intercepted 11 metres of 5.91 grams gold from 16 metres. The first-phase holes were drilled at the southern end of the zone.

In phase two, Monument tested the centre of the main zone, as well as the separate North zone. Results include 10 metres of 4.84 grams gold, 6 metres of 3.68 grams gold, 11 metres of 8.33 grams gold, 6 metres of 9.12 grams gold, 12 metres of 3.22 grams gold, and 8 metres of 6.55 grams gold. All intercepts started at less than 50 metres depth.

Buffalo Reef is home to a historic resource (not compliant with National Instrument 43-101) of 1.94 million indicated tonnes grading 2.49 grams gold and 568,000 inferred tonnes averaging 1.62 grams gold.

Exploration results from Buffalo Reef indicate it could form part of a larger gold camp extending from Selinsing in the south along a 4.2-km-long shear zone that stretches north.

The Selinsing-Buffalo Reef area sits just 4 north of the equator, which means the climate is tropical. Temperatures range from 23 to 36 C and annual rainfall averages 2.3 metres.

At the end of March, Monument had just over $10 million available in working capital. The company’s share price has traded at around 32¢ since March, near the middle of a 52-week trading range of 14-52¢. Monument has 156 million shares outstanding.