Underground development at the Omagh gold mine, in Northern Ireland, has reached the main Kearney gold vein, TSX-V- and Aim-listed Galantas Gold reported on Monday.
The vein intersection is about some 15 m below the base of the Kearney openpit.
Galantas said that a horizontal development tunnel is planned to be driven on vein in both directions, beneath a safety (Crown) pillar. It is anticipated that this will provide limited feed to the mill early in the third quarter.
The decline tunnel is planned to be extended in depth, along with construction of a second means of egress (safety escapeway). The decline is planned to provide access to lower levels and permit stoping, between the first two horizontal levels, late in 2018 or early in 2019.
Stoping operations are expected to provide an enhanced supply of mill feed.
Galantas also reported that a new 4 t capacity load-haul-dump unit has been ordered from Epiroc, formerly Atlas Copco, on a rental purchase basis. This should improve productivity in loading operations from the smaller cross-section vein drives.