Name: Éléonore mine.
Location: Éléonore is located in the north-east corner of the Opinaca reservoir in the James Bay region of Québec, Canada.
Holding and Controlling Company: Goldcorp.
Brief Description: Éléonore is an underground mining operation with one processing facility, where ore is currently trucked to surface or hoisted through the exploration shaft. The project has a current mine life of ten years.
Brief History: Virginia Gold Mines started drilling at the Éléonore project in 2005 on the Roberto zone, which comprises the Roberto, East Roberto and Zone du Lac lenses under the waters of the Opinaca Reservoir. The mineralisation was traced from surface to a depth of 800 m. Drilling also discovered mineralisation beyond the Roberto Peninsula into the James Bay area and on the north shore of Ell Lake as well as to the south. This early exploration success attracted the interest of Goldcorp, which bought the project from Virginia Gold in 2006.
Goldcorp launched a $1.4-billion construction programme at the Éléonore project in 2011. Commercial production at the mine was declared on April 1, 2015.
Products: Gold.
/Mineralisation: The Éléonore property is located within the contact zone between the La Grande and Opinaca subprovinces. The host rocks of the Roberto deposit consist of aluminous metasediments and conglomerates, found along the northern edge of large dioritic intrusions. The sedimentary rocks evolve into pegmatite-bearing paragneiss to the north and west, suggesting a steep metamorphic gradient.
The Roberto deposit comprises numerous subparallel gold-bearing lenses hosted by polydeformed sedimentary rocks, usually a thinly bedded greywacke. The gold mineralisation is found within stockworks of quartz/tourmaline/arsenopyrite veins and veinlets contained within the microcline and brown tourmaline replacement zones.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at June 30, 2016, were estimated at 23.44-million tonnes grading 6.07 g/t gold.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at June 30, 2016, were estimated at 5.14-million tonnes grading 5.66 g/t gold. Inferred resources were estimated at 9.73-million tonnes grading 7.52 g/t gold.
Mining Method: Open stope mining (down-hole drilling) and longitudinal retreat with consolidated backfill (paste backfill mixed with crushed waste rock).
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The flowsheet comprises a conventional carbon-in-pulp (CIP) extraction process, with an initial throughput of 3 500 t/d to be ultimately expanded to 7 000 t/d to match the mining rate. There will be three stages of crushing, followed by grinding and gravity concentration ahead of sulphide flotation. The float concentrate will be reground and leached in cyanide, followed by a CIP circuit and stripping.
The tailings area is designed to manage 26-million tonnes of waste, sufficient for the planned life of the mine. A sulphur dioxide-air cyanide destruction circuit will be included.
Prospects: At the end of the third quarter of 2016 the production shaft construction, including the ore-handling system on the 690 m level, was completed and commissioned, with hoisting starting in early October 2016.
With the completion of the production shaft, the mine will continue to ramp up ore production in line with the mine plan as a further two production horizons are brought on line by 2018. The production ramp-up to 7 000 t/d is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018.
Contact Person: Investor enquiries Lynette Gould.
Contact Details:
Goldcorp – Red Lake Gold Mines
Tel +1 807 735 2077
Fax +1 807 735 2765
Email RLGM.HR@goldcorp.com
Website http://www.goldcorp.com