RFC dewatering program starting at Pend Oreille

Douglas Nicholson, RFC’s president, said the actual dewatering program is scheduled to begin “in just a few days.” He predicted it will require 4-5 weeks of pumping to access the Josephine horizon, a lower grade mineralized stratum lying some 1,000 ft above the Yellowhead zone where previous mining was largely concentrated.

Movable transformers are being installed underground for the 3,000 gallon per minute pumping program which is scheduled for completion in October.

“We’ve got the underground program from the Josephine into the Yellowhead all laid out and Longyear will be put on standby fairly shortly to bring in at least two machines,” he said. Close-spaced drilling is planned on 200 ft centres and Nicholson emphasized they will be “drilling for structure as much as anything else.”

A 15,246-ft surface program was carried out earlier to examine the drill-indicated reserve base reported by the vendor which was originally estimated at six million tons along 6,000 ft of strike length. RFC’s program was confined to an area of about 3,000 ft within old mine workings and the results were very encouraging.

Indeed, the company has defined a drill-indicated reserve of three million tons grading 9.8% zinc and 1.9% lead over an average thickness of 10.8 ft. “This is a marked improvement over the average in-situ grade of 7.3% zinc and 1.8% lead encountered over the Pend Oreille’s last few operating years,” Nicholson noted.

RFC has received a preliminary report from Cominco Engineering Services concerning the rehabilitation of established ore handling, milling, tailings and support facilities. “Final feasibility is scheduled for completion before year-end with mill tune-up targeted for the third quarter of 1990.”

Although the mill building is in relatively good shape, most of the equipment inside is unusable with the possible exception of a ball mill. Rehabilitation of the plant will be a major cost item in resuming production at Pend Oreille.

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