Name: Bell Creek mine.
Location: The Bell Creek mine is located in the Porcupine Mining Division, Hoyle Township, in Ontario, Canada.
Controlling Company: Pan American Silver and Tahoe Resources completed a transaction in February 2019 whereby Pan American acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Tahoe.
Brief Description: The Bell Creek mine is an underground gold mine and processing facility, with an estimated life-of-mine to 2024.
Brief History: Gold mineralisation was first discovered on the Bell Creek property through a joint venture (JV) between Rosario Resources Canada and Dupont of Canada Exploration in the early 1980s. Between 1986 and 1991, Canamax Resources explored and developed the Bell Creek mine. Falconbridge Gold Corporation operated Bell Creek from 1991 to 1992, followed by Kinross Gold Corporation until mine closure in 1994.
The mine was kept on care and maintenance until 2001, when it was decided to allow for the underground workings to flood. In 2002, the Porcupine Joint Venture (PJV), a JV between Placer Dome and Kinross, acquired the property. The mine was restarted in 2005.
In January 2007, Lake Shore Gold Corp (LSG) entered into an agreement with Goldcorp, the manager of the PJV, to acquire the Bell Creek mine and mill, which included the shaft, hoist, headframe, ore bin, collar house, hoist building, mine dry, office complex, underground mine workings and historical (non‐National Instrument 43‐101-compliant) mineral resources.
Portal construction for an advanced exploration ramp began in May 2009. The ramp provided access to historic mine workings and provided platforms for exploration diamond drilling. Several sublevels were established at 15 m vertical intervals below the 300 m level and a bulk sample taken.
The Bell Creek mine declared commercial production effective January 1, 2012. Tahoe acquired the Bell Creek mine in April 2016 as part of its acquisition of LSG.
In February 2019, Pan American Silver acquired all the issued and outstanding shares of Tahoe Resources.
Products: Gold.
Geology/Mineralisation: The Bell Creek mine property is underlain by carbonate altered, greenschist facies Archean‐aged, metavolcanic and clastic metasedimentary rocks belonging to the Tisdale and Porcupine assemblages. The strike of these rocks is generally east‐west to west‐north-west, with steep southerly dips.
Gold mineralisation in the Bell Creek mine occurs in steep south-dipping, sheet-like, shear-hosted mineralised zones. A series of 16 mineralised zones (14 subparallel and two splay zones) have been identified. Of these, the bulk of the mineralisation occurs within the North A, North A2, North B and North B2 zones. The North A zone has dominantly been the source of historical production.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at January 31, 2018, were estimated at 2.4-million tonnes grading 4.07 g/t gold.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at January 31, 2018, were estimated at 5.3-million tonnes grading 4.31 g/t gold. Inferred resources were estimated at three-million tonnes grading 4.36 g/t gold.
Mining Method: Underground long-hole mining methods with ore trucked to surface by a ramp system for processing.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment:
The Bell Creek mine includes:
- a conventional mill, which includes crushing and grinding circuits, a gravity concentration circuit and cyanide leaching and CIP gold absorption process;
- a coarse ore bin;
- a permitted tailings facility, including a polishing pond and associated infrastructure;
- an administrative building and dry facility with office space, including a conference room;
- an infirmary, a main garage, a millwright shop and an electrical shop;
- an assay laboratory;
- a warehouse for reagents and lubricants;
- a diamond drill core shack;
- water treatment and supply facilities;
- a cyanide destruction plant;
- a hoist room, a headframe and a 290-m-deep shaft;
- a portal, ramp, ventilation raises and a series of ramp‐connected underground sublevels;
- a fleet of underground mobile mine equipment; and
- site power supply provided by a 115 kV power line from the City of Timmins.
Prospects: An expansion project is expected to double production at the mine to reach 80 000 oz/y starting in 2019, with the mine life expected to increase by more than ten years.
Contact: VP, investor relations and corporate communications Siren Fisekci.
Contact Details:
Pan American Silver
Tel +1 604 684 1175
Fax +1 604 684-0147
Email info@panamericansilver.com
Website https://www.panamericansilver.com