NEW FOUND GOLD

Gold, as any prospector worth his salt will tell you, is often found in the damndest places. One of those places is the lonely, southwestern coast of Newfoundland. This is rugged country, where the caribou outnumber the people and where the trees are few and far between. The fog is thick and the wind is raw, but in the past year a major gold mine has begun to blossom out of the lichen. Hope Brook Gold, a subsidiary of bp Selco, actually entered production last month — more than a year before the project is scheduled to officially open. The reason for Hope Brook’s early production is heap leaching, a simple, low-cost technique for gold recovery which is generally popular in drier, more temperate climates such as the American southwest. The process involves placing crushed ore in a large pile and allowing cyanide solution to percolate through. The cyanide dissolves the gold into a solution from which it can be recovered by carbon adsorption (see separate story, page 39).

With a projected average gold recovery rate of 126,000 oz per year, Hope Brook will be the sixth largest gold producer in Canada (the 11th largest in North America), according to bp. But the project is unique in other ways. It is also the only gold producer in Newfoundland (a province where iron ore accounts for more than 90% of the mining sector) and the biggest heap leaching operation in Canada.

The company blasted its first round for an inclined ramp in late February; and when I visited the operation in late July, 600 m had been cleared toward the first development level. But the underground operation isn’t expected to enter full production until the fall of 1988. In the meantime, reserves are to be mined from an open pit where the orebody outcrops at surface. Construction, already 35% complete, is on schedule and morale couldn’t be better.

The job, however, won’t be easy. Situated about 490 ft above sea level, the mine site is buffeted frequently by Atlantic gales and is accessible only by air or water. “Let’s face it,” says General Manager Bill Fotheringham as a helicopter whisks us over a vast stretch of brooks and ponds toward the mine site. “The southwest coast of Newfoundland is a difficult place to mine. It’s much like the tundra areas of the Arctic, where there are no trees to offer protection.” While it is not especially cold — the average winter temperature is minus 4 degrees C, though the thermometer does drop to about minus 20 degrees C on cold days — it is very, very windy. Winds average 20-25 mph, but gusts of more than 100 mph are common. For an operation just starting up, such conditions are threatening. “Last winter was the worst in 65 years on the island,” Fotheringham adds. “There was lots of blowing snow and white-out conditions. In fact we lost a couple of trailers for the construction crew; the wind just picked them up and blew them over.”

The severe winter also fouled up completion of the permanent accommodation complex, which was delayed three months. The initial plan was for a construction camp which would accommodate 160 people who would build the permanent complex. But, despite the delay, the rest of the project (including the open pit contract and mill construction) remained on schedule — so the size of the construction camp had to be almost tripled, to accommodate close to 400 at a cost of about $1 million. The permanent complex will house 150 workers and is expected to be fully serviceable by November.

Management and crew from Corner Brook, a city about 75 miles to the north, are often prevented from flying into the site by helicopter because of fog — especially in the summertime. To avoid this, most workers and all supplies arrive by ship from Port Aux Basques, 50 miles to the west. The vessel, a 1,176-ton, beachable front- end loader called the Couteau Supplier, is under charter from Dome Petroleum. It measures 226 ft long with a 51-ft beam and travels at a maximum of 11 knots. The Supplier can carry eight tractor trailers and is being retrofitted to carry an additional seven as well as 49 passengers instead of the current 12.

Fog poses no problem for the vessel. “With our own ship making regular deliveries, who could ask for anything better?” says construction superintendent Bob Nistico. “The great thing about the Supplier is that we can always count on it. It arrives and leaves pretty well on schedule, the only danger being heavy seas and winds.”

There will be no road into the site for the simple reason that gravel is almost impossible to find on the southwest coast of Newfoundland. And, again, harsh winters are a construction crew’s nightmare; an access road at the nearby fishing village of Burgeo, for example, was closed for two weeks last winter.

There is also an environmental concern. Conservationists fear that by building roads into the site, caribou and other wildlife in the area would become susceptible to poachers. The mine is close to the wintering and calving ground of the Lapoile caribou herd, which numbers about 9,000. During the mine’s feasibility study stage, bp, in a joint study with the provincial department of wildlife, monitored the effect of mine site development on the herd. In addition, the company is committed to a 4-year program of ongoing monitoring (two years during construction and two years during operations).

“The Hope Brook zone project is so confined in space (15.5 square miles) that we’re confident we won’t affect the herd,” Fotheringham explains. “But just to document that fact, we have committed ourselves to the study.” In order to protect the animals, no firearms nor snow machines are allowed on the site and there are strict requirements regarding helicopters. And if that isn’t enough, Hope Brook must ensure there are no caribou within a 550-yd radius of the open pit before any blasting can be carried out.

Caribou aren’t the only animals under the company’s scrutiny. About 380 yards from the orebody is the Cinq Cerf Brook, a designated Atlantic salmon stream. To avoid contaminating the pristine stream, Hope Brook has located all its facilities in a different, non-salmon-bearing watershed. Strict design controls and operating procedures are in place with respect to acid-generation and waste deposition from the open pit. Containment dikes have been built around the pit, and all sulphide-bearing waste (which is potentially acid-generating) will be placed into the underground mine as backfill before mining activities end.

“Such environmental concerns are inevitable in remote areas,” Fotheringham explains. “Since 1985 we’ve had countless meetings with nine different regulatory agencies. Sure, the process has been a pain, but we’re confident it will pay dividends.” Would Hope Brook have been as conscientious without government regulations? “Absolutely, but not on as broad a scale. The current monitoring program covers a much larger area than the 5-6-mile radius around the mine to which we would have committed ourselves.”

But as the saying goes, “you can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em” — which is certainly applicable to a grassroots mining venture in need of government support. Hope Brook owes much of its speedy development to a $14-million repayable federal grant for mill and power- generating facilities, as well as a $6-million non-repayable provincial grant toward the cost of on-site infrastructure. Part of the provincial grant has been designated for pier and shipping facilities at Couteau Bay though most of it w ill finance a 25-mile hydroelectric spur line which will connect the mine site to a new power line at Burgeo, 25 miles to the east. The spur line is but part of a 138-kilovolt main hydro line which will stretch from Bottom Brook, in the north near Stephenville, to Burgeo. The main line will cost $20 million and is scheduled for completion by January, 1988; the spur line by November, 1987. Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is managing the construction. Burgeo has, up to now, been running on diesel power; it is largely due to Hope Brook that the town will soon be receiving hydroelectricity. (A spur line will als
o be extended to Grand Bruit, a tiny coastal outport immediately west of the mine site.)

Hydroelectricity is one indication of how Hope Brook is contributing to Newfoundland’s sagging economy. A more important indication, of course, is jobs — especially considering the province’s 20% unemployment rate. The mine is currently the largest construction project on the island, employing about 400 people. And when construction is completed by mid-1988, between 250 and 270 permanent employees will be on the Hope Brook payroll — the vast majority of them, Newfoundlanders. (Construction is 35% complete and on schedule except for the 3-month delay on the permanent accommodation complex. The heap leach phase is essentially complete and most of the structural steel has been erected for the grinding and milling phase. Bechtel Canada Engineers is responsible for engineering procurement and construction management.)

“The spin-off effect from the establishment of the mine will be tremendous,” says Paul Dean, director of lands and mines for the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Mines and Energy. “The service sector for mining, exploration and construction is benefiting the most from Hope Brook. By creating an extra demand for goods and services in southwestern Newfoundland, the project is helping to solve our unemployment problem. And there is no doubt that it is serving to attract investment into the province. We no longer have to twist people’s arms to make them realize that Newfoundland is a good place to explore.

“And there is no question that Hope Brook has spurred exploration in the province,” Dean adds. “The project has shattered several myths, the chief one being that there are no large gold deposits on the East Coast. Since 1983, when the highly mineralized Hope Brook zone was discovered, exploration activity in the province has increased by at least $15 million — more than double what it was previously. Companies that were operating here prior to and during the discovery have seen their exploration budgets substantially increased. The flow-through (tax-sheltered) money that has been pouring into the province is primarily due to Hope Brook.”

While admitting that Hope Brook is providing work for many islanders, Fotheringham stresses that the operation should not be overestimated in terms of its economic impact. “We now have more than 8,000 applications on file for a mere 270 jobs. That gives you a feeling for the tremendous need for jobs in Newfoundland.”

The labor-intensiveness of the Hope Brook mine is largely due to the nature of the operation (as well as its remoteness). Open pit reserves of 1.1 million tons grading 0.13 oz per ton will be scooped out at the rate of 1,750 tons per day. This ore, plus an additional 86,200 tons from development of the underground mine, will be heap leached to extract an estimated 75,420 oz of gold (28,070 oz in 1987 and 47,350 oz in 1988). Underground reserves have been estimated at 10.6 million tons grading 0.13 oz per ton which works out to 1.16 million oz of contained gold. The underground mine is expected to achieve full production of 2,940 tons per day in late 1988.

The heap leaching has a recovery of 70% and is scheduled to last a year and a half, after which time conventional carbon-in-pulp milling (with a 91% recovery) will occur. Meanwhile a 2.3-mile underground ramp is being driven because of early production potential and because the 1,300-ft orebody isn’t deep enough to justify sinking a shaft, says Bill Leathem, underground superintendent. The 15.7×20.9-ft ramp is being driven at a gradient of –12% from surface, which will allow both service access and ore haulage exit from the mine. The considerable size of the ramp is necessary since it must accommodate 50-ton trucks.

Hope Brook plans to develop the first and second levels initially in order to begin mining the ore between those levels. About 490 ft of advance per month was being achieved when I visited the site. The workings, which consist of five levels at 210-ft intervals, will be mined using blast-hole open- stoping with 6 1/2 -inch in-the-hole drills. Primary stopes are 49 ft wide and will be filled with cemented hydraulic fill whereas the 98-ft wide secondary stopes will be plugged with non-cemented fill.

All development equipment has been purchased and production equipment is now being reviewed. Among Hope Brook’s on-site equipment are a 3-boom Jarvis Clark pneumatic jumbo; two Boart electric- hydraulic 2-boom jumbos; an Atlas Copco electric-hydraulic rock-bolting jumbo; three Wagner ST8A scooptrams with ejector buckets; three Wagner MT437 waste-haulage trucks; a MacLean scissor bolter; and two Teledyne anfo-charging vehicles.

“The advantage of the electric- hydraulic jumbos is that they allow for good ventilation,” Leathem says. “They certainly don’t pollute the air as much as pneumatic equipment.”

In addition, the company is considering buying electric load-haul dumpers as well as two (eventually three) state-of-the-art electric trucks. The trucks are manufactured by Kiruna Truck of Sweden and marketed by Atlas Copco. “These are high-speed trucks which, naturally, don’t pollute the air with diesel smoke,” Leathem explains. “And they have a 50-ton capacity, which is a nice size load to be taking up to the mill on a regular basis.”

The total capital cost of the Hope Brook project is about $150 million, including $40 million for infrastructure alone. Operating costs for the heap leach operation will be $162(US) per oz of gold, while costs for the underground production and conventional milling are estimated at $190 per oz. That works out to an over-all average production cost of $188 per oz.

With today’s gold prices, the Hope Brook team has every reason to feel excited. Not only has the project experienced few unpleasant surprises; metallurgical results have all been favorable and delineation drilling has confirmed the reserves which were initially outlined. Yes, there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But few would ever have expected the rainbow to stretch to the rocky coast of Newfoundland