TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Project developer Gold Mountain Mining has placed its Elk gold project, for which it has now received an effluent discharge permit, on care and maintenance.
The company on Wednesday advised that under the existing 4 000 m2 bulk sample permit, it could still extract 1 560 m2. However, an evaluation of the economics to mine ore along strike between the old and new pits had determined that the level of risk associated with uncertainty surrounding the weaker gold price was too high.
Gold Mountain in April reported that the 2014 bulk sample campaign resulted in 6 597 t of ore being sent to a third-party mill for processing. The results returned an average grade of 16.7 g/t. Gold recovery in the third-party mill averaged 96.9% and produced a total of 3 696 oz; with 3 531 oz coming from the 2014 bulk sample and another 165 oz of gold obtained from mineralised material left over from historic mining.
Meanwhile, the effluent discharge permit issued by the British Columbia Ministry of Environment this week, would allow the TSX-V-listed company to passively release to the environment ground and rainwater that had accumulated in the two bulk sample pits.
Under the terms of the permit, Gold Mountain would be obliged to take regular water samples and report the results to the Ministry to ensure the water leaving the mine area remained within the province’s water quality guidelines.
Gold Mountain stated that receiving the discharge permit was one step in the process of putting the Elk property into commercial production and proved the relatively environmentally benign nature of the gold mineralisation and enclosing wall rock.