Royal Oak to dig super pit at Pamour operation

More mill feed and an expanded Pamour mill are in the cards for Royal Oak Mines (RYO-T).

The company now estimates that its Ontario division has a 120-million-tonne mineral resource grading 1.9 grams gold per tonne. This is equivalent to 7.3 million oz. gold — 2.8 million oz. more than at the end of 1995.

The Pamour mill, now operating at 3,600 tonnes per day, will be expanded to 13,600 tonnes, and design work is already under way on a new mill in Matachewan, 75 km to the southeast. This new mill is scheduled to start production in late 1997, and the Pamour expansion should be accomplished by late 1998. In all, the Ontario division is expected to crank out 300,000 oz.

per year once the Pamour expansion is complete.

A 2-year drill program at the Pamour pit has enabled Royal Oak to design a large, low-grade “super pit” to provide long-term feed to the Pamour mill.

Proven and probable reserves at the Timmins operations — including the Pamour pit and the Hoyle South and Night Hawk Lake mines — amount to 63 million tonnes grading 1.6 grams gold in open pits, plus 2.1 million tonnes grading 3.7 grams underground. Resources at these same operations total 30 million tonnes grading 1.8 grams gold at the pits and 10.2 million tonnes grading 2.9 grams underground.

In the Matachewan area, Royal Oak has outlined 13.8 million tonnes grading 2.6 grams gold on several properties.