Golden Predator Mining Corp. (TSX.V:GPY,
OTCQX:NTGSF) (the “
Company” or
“
Golden Predator”) announced today that it has
commenced site improvements and an accelerated
exploration/development drilling program at its fully licensed
100%-owned Brewery Creek Mine near Dawson City, Yukon. Site
development work is underway following the receipt of formal
notification from the Yukon Government confirming the
validity of the current Quartz Mining License and Water License
which permits the immediate start of work to reactivate the Brewery
Creek Mine. The 2019 exploration drilling program will test
numerous targets across the property with the objective of
expanding and upgrading the existing mineral resource.
Golden Predator Chief Executive Officer Janet
Lee-Sheriff said “This is the ideal time to intensify our Brewery
Creek Mine work program which has been ongoing since 2009. This
mine shut down in 2002 due to a collapse in the gold price, not a
failure of its technical underpinnings or a lack of gold resources.
With the recent resurgence of the gold price and the lack of
licensed projects in North America, we believe we can create
significant new value by adding resources and working towards a
near-term start-up of a relatively high grade heap leach project
that has extensive economic and environmental information to
support a viable operation.”
To view the Brewery Creek Mine project and maps
please
visit:http://www.goldenpredator.com/_resources/news/BC_Work_Plan_2019_NR.pdf
Golden Predator intends to proceed with a
feasibility study on the Brewery Creek Mine, and thereafter, should
the feasibility study support a production decision, proceed
to production in a safe, environmentally respectful manner that can
provide economic benefit to the company, the local community, the
Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in (TH) and the Yukon. Exploration and
engineering studies to date as disclosed in the Preliminary
Economic Assessment dated November 19, 2014 (“PEA”), have shown
that the property can potentially be brought back into operation,
initially by re-processing the existing heap leach pile and mining
the known near-surface oxide resources.
At present, one reverse circulation drill rig is
operating at the Brewery Creek Mine and has already completed 1,200
m of drilling. Two additional drill rigs are planned to commence
drilling in mid-August 2019. In addition, the Company is mobilizing
heavy equipment to commence pre-construction work in preparation
for mine reconstruction which is expected to begin in earnest in
2020.
Work Program: Brewery Creek
Mine
The Company has commenced work to put in place
infrastructure as approved under its Water License and Quartz
Mining License which permits mining at a rate of 4.0 million
tonnes of mineralized material per year with gold processing and
recovery by sodium cyanide heap leaching and activated carbon
recovery.
The licensed Brewery Creek Mine consisted of a
permanent heap leach pad, an adsorption-desorption and gold
recovery (“ADR”) plant, process and overflow ponds and ancillary
facilities. The ADR plant and the laboratory building were removed
but the concrete foundations were preserved; testing is underway to
assure their ability to be returned to use. The work plan
commencing in 2019 and continuing through 2020 is designed to:
- Re-establish east access road to ADR plant and sediment/erosion
control structures;
- Re-establish west access road to ADR plant site and
sediment/erosion control structures;
- Remove soil cover from concrete foundations of former ADR plant
and assay lab and surrounding area;
- Re-grade as needed and re-line three solution ponds;
- Expand the existing camp as permitted;
- Clear brush, remove and stockpile topsoil and silt materials,
prepare the soil foundation for installation of liners and leak
detection systems on cells 8, 9 and 10 of the leach pad
area;
- Re-construct infrastructure, ADR plant, power plant, assay lab,
warehouses, maintenance shop, office buildings in permitted
locations from earlier operations;
- Construct crushing, processing and conveyor stacking
systems;
- Re-habilitate haul road to Fosters licensed for ore extraction
and waste disposal;
- Extract mineralized material from licensed pits (Pacific, Blue,
Moosehead, Canadian, Fosters, Kokanee, Golden and Lucky);
- Commence monthly water sampling/quarterly groundwater sampling
at established compliance sites;
- Expand environmental studies, including monthly sampling at
newly established hydrological baseline sites, and quarterly
sampling at newly installed groundwater monitoring wells;
- Refine and update economic studies on mine plans to include new
information developed since the 2014 Preliminary Economic
Assessment (PEA) including the commissioning of a Feasibility Study
for the initial phase of reactivation.
The plans summarized above, including a
Feasibility Study, are focused on steps necessary to permit a
decision to proceed with production of gold from oxidized
heap-leachable mineralized material. A significant amount of
sulfide material exists at Brewery Creek and while portions of this
material are not receptive to heap leaching, other recovery methods
will be investigated including but not limited to
bioxidation. A commercial production decision would be based
on a feasibility study.
Additional exploration success is anticipated to
further extend the mine life beyond the 8 years originally
contemplated in the PEA. The Company considers the PEA to be
current pending completion of the additional work described
above. While the development work and initial production
activities are being carried out, Golden Predator will continue to
explore, develop and submit amendments to the licenses covering
additional areas in order to extend the life of mine.
The PEA is preliminary in nature, and includes
inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative
geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them
that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and
there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will
be realized.
Drilling and Ongoing
Exploration Work
The Company is accelerating its successful
exploration and development drilling program which began in 2009
and was interrupted in 2012 after having increased NI 43-101
resources five-fold from an Indicated Resource of 3.98 million
tonnes @ 1.135 g/t gold (145,000 contained ounces) and an Inferred
Resource of 2.2 million tonnes @ 2.01 g/t gold (142,000 contained
ounces), to17.61 million tonnes @ 1.27 g/t gold (719,000 contained
ounces) and an Inferred Resource of 21.717 million tonnes @ 1.18
g/t gold (825,000 contained ounces of gold). Oxide only
resources were reported at 14.1 million tonnes @ 1.27 g/t gold
Indicated (577,000 ounces gold) and 9.3 million tonnes @ 0.93 g/t
gold Inferred (279,000 ounces gold)(1, 2) . The Company has
experienced a high exploration drilling success rate at Brewery
Creek with over 80% of the holes having intercepted significant
mineralization. Only limited drilling has been conducted since
2012, primarily for metallurgical and geotechnical analysis. Many
targets remain open or untested across the 180 km2 property.
The 2019 Q3/Q4 drilling at Brewery Creek will
consist of development, exploration and metallurgical drilling
along with continuing prospecting and target generation along
strike extensions of mineralized trends.
A minimum of 6,000 m of drilling will be
completed in 2019. Two reverse circulation rigs will complete a
minimum of 4,500 m of development drilling within the central
portion of the Reserve Trend to expand currently defined gold
resources along strike. The development drilling will focus on the
productive Fosters-Kokanee-Golden-Lucky (FKGL) corridor.
Exploration drilling will continue along the 4.5
km long Classic/Lone Star structural corridor. A minimum of
1,500 m of drilling will test over 1 km of additional strike length
on the un-drilled southern extension as well as the sparsely
drilled northern extension of the mineralized corridor.
At least 500 m of PQ core will be obtained from
sulfide gold mineralization from the Fosters-Kokanee-Golden-Lucky
corridor for bio-oxidation testing. This work will follow up
on a document from the previous operator that reported positive
metallurgical results from bio-oxidation of sulfide material.
Bioxidation has advanced considerably in the past 30 years since
this initial test and could, if successful and economical, unlock
the large sulfide resources underlying the oxide mineralization
across the property. (2)
Bulk Sampling, Process
Optimization-Reprocessing Remaining Gold in Heap Leach
Pads
Historical records available to the Company from
prior operations by Viceroy Minerals Corporation for the period of
approximately 1996 through 2002 indicate that the prior operator of
the mine placed 10.43 million tonnes on the heap leach pad at an
average grade of 1.5 g/t gold containing approximately 525,094
ounces of gold. Refinery records state that 277,170 ounces
were produced from the heap leach pad, which based solely on those
historical records would result in 247,924 contained ounces in the
existing heap leach pad.
Note that the above estimates, including
estimates of tonnage and grade from prior operations, are
considered historical estimates. Historical information has
not been classified as a current mineral resource. A
qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the
historical estimate as a current mineral resource or mineral
reserve. The issuer is not treating the historical estimate
as a current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Data was
provided in extensive historic mining, ADR recovery and refinery
reports available to the Company and are believed to be relevant
and reliable.
The estimates based on the historical data
contrast with a 2011 mineral resource estimate on the material
located on the heap leach pad, which provided an Indicated
Resource of 2.977 million tonnes @ 0.88 g/t gold (84,000 ounces of
gold) plus an Inferred Resource of 1.682 million tonnes @ 0.60 g/t
gold (32,000 ounces of gold)(1). Several factors are
believed to have contributed to the more conservative assessment in
the 2011 mineral resource estimate including attempting to utilize
standard drill hole-based resource modelling protocol for in-situ
unmined material on modeling a multi-sourced, variably graded,
already mined, hauled and mixed body of gold bearing
material. In addition, there are tens of thousands of assay
and data points including 2445 exploration drill holes and the
resultant individual deposit resource modelling used in the mining
of the deposits, blast hole data from every mined bench and
detailed reports and records from the ADR plant as well as the
refinery used to report the historic figures.
By contrast, the 2011 estimates utilized
18 sonic drill holes, located on an approximate 100 m grid, drilled
to a maximum depth of 22.86 m containing 177 samples, each one
representing a 5 foot interval from a sonic drill hole, whose
results were included in the NI-43-101 resource estimate.
There was an additional 3.366 million tonnes considered to be
“waste” (Table 16-9 of the PEA) from the total 8.025 million tonnes
to be removed from the heap leach pad for a strip ratio of
0.72. The limited drill data and the limitations of modelling
mined material, as discussed above, result in the model treating a
significant portion of the material as “waste” on a heap leach
pad. The Company views that the classification as waste
addresses the limitations of the drill program, however by
definition material placed on a heap leach pad would typically not
include waste, as only mineralized material is intended to be
placed on it for extraction of gold. The proposed additional
work on the leach pad as described below is intended to address
this limitation.
Leach pad mineralized material was originally
placed as run-of-mine, uncrushed material which resulted in a low
overall gold recovery of approximately 52%.
The sonic drill hole samples from 2011 were
composited to create material for four column leach tests, crushed
to 80% passing 9.5mm, and then subjected to column leaching for 141
days. The four columns returned recovery values ranging from 42.9%
to 57.3% averaging 52.1%. This work demonstrated the potential to
recover substantial additional gold from heap leach pad
inventory.
Additional testing of the heap leach pad will be
conducted In order to address the limitations described above for
the 2011 resource estimate. This additional work will include
drilling and bulk sampling to be completed this year to further
test leach recovery characteristics and to determine optimal
crushing size versus recovery tradeoffs from a series of column
leach tests to be conducted with different crush size material
including 1”, ¾”, ½” and ¼”. In addition, the bulk sampling
material will be tested to determine crusher feed parameters for
the heap material to be reprocessed as well as heap stability and
stacking characterization. Crushing and re-processing heap
leach inventory is a permissible activity under existing
licenses.
Leach Pad Expansion
Pre-Stripping
The original heap leach was designed in 10
cells, with only 7 cells built to date. The pad is currently
licensed to hold 15 million Tonnes of mineralized material of which
10.43 million Tonnes are currently in place. Accordingly the
remaining 3 cells will be built under this plan to accommodate the
remaining tonnage permitted under the license, including new
mineralized material or crushed heap lead pad material for
reprocessing. Work will commence in 2019 to clear brush and
remove topsoil from the remaining leach pad construction area and
to prepare the surface for placement of additional leach pad liner
in 2020.
Haul Road Reconstruction
Approximately 12.5 km of haul roads were
constructed to haul ore from the open pits at Brewery Creek to the
leach pad. In addition to these main haul roads, a number of
secondary haul roads were constructed to gain access to individual
pit benches and waste rock piles. The existing haul roads require
removal of soil/growth media that was placed over the width of the
road and drainage crossings will be re-established with
installation of culverts. In some instances, the width of the
haul roads will be increased as necessary for optimal safety and
operating conditions. Mining of the Brewery Creek deposits will be
done by conventional open pit methods with pits designed for each
deposit and linked to the leach pad and mine services area via the
12.5 km of existing haul roads.
Brewery Creek Mine, Yukon: Resources and Past
Production
The Brewery Creek Mine is a licensed brownfields
heap leach gold mine that was operated by Viceroy Minerals
Corporation from 1996 to 2002. Brewery Creek was put into Temporary
Closure in 2002 following a collapse of the gold price to below
$300 US per troy ounce. Golden Predator commenced work on the
project starting in 2009. Brewery Creek is now authorized to
restart mining activities that follow the previously assessed and
approved mine plans without further assessment and review as
defined in the Quartz Mining License and Water License. The Company
intends to resume mining and processing of established resources
remaining within the existing licensed and permitted areas while
the Company works with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Yukon Government to
expand the licensed mining area to include new discoveries made
since 2011.
The 180 km2 property is located 55 km due east
of Dawson City and is accessible year round by paved and improved
gravel roads. Significant infrastructure remains in place, allowing
for a timely restart schedule under existing licenses.
The Brewery Creek Mine has a Preliminary
Economic Assessment (PEA) resource estimation including an
Indicated oxide resource of 577,000 troy ounces of gold in 14.2
million tonnes averaging 1.27 g/t gold and an Inferred oxide
resources of 279,000 troy ounces of gold in 9.3 million tonnes
averaging 0.93 g/t gold (includes resource areas located within and
outside of production licenses as shown on map). In addition, the
resource estimate contains Indicated sulfide resources of 142,000
troy ounces of gold in 3.5 million tonnes at 1.28 g/t gold and
Inferred sulfide resources totaling 546,000 troy ounces of gold in
12.4 million tonnes at 1.37 g/t gold (1), although most drilling
was historically terminated a short depth below the oxide
mineralization, leaving sulfide potential largely untested.
The Brewery Creek Mine holds a Socio Economic
Accord with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and is licensed to resume mining
activities under the current Water License and Quartz Mining
Licenses. The project also has a Class IV Mining Land Use Permit to
conduct additional exploration.
From 1996 to 2002 approximately 280,000 oz gold
were produced from seven near-surface oxide deposits along the
property's Reserve Trend.
The technical content of this news release has
been reviewed and approved by Jeff Cary, CPG, a Qualified Person as
defined by National Instrument 43-101 and an employee of the
Company.
Golden Predator Mining
Corp.
Golden Predator is advancing the past-producing
Brewery Creek Mine towards a timely resumption of mining
activities, under its valid Quartz Mining and Water Licenses, in
Canada’s Yukon. With established resources grading over 1.0 g/t
Gold and low capex to production in a safe first world
jurisdiction, Brewery Creek has a clear path to production as an
economically and environmentally known project. Optimization
studies are progressing to enhance the already positive multi-phase
project economics described in the 2014 Preliminary Economic
Assessment. Drilling continues to expand the open-ended resources
and untested targets across the 186 km2 brownfield property.
At the 3 Aces project, Golden Predator continues
to expand on discoveries of native gold in quartz veins while
ongoing bulk sampling and processing at the 50 tpd Company-owned
processing plant has demonstrated gold recoveries of over 85% using
a chemical-free process. This green gold provides the gold for the
mintage of .9999 gold coins from the Yukon Mint™, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Golden Predator.
For additional
information:
Janet Lee-Sheriff
Chief Executive
Officer
Golden Predator Mining
Corp.
(604) 260-8435
info@goldenpredator.com www.goldenpredator.com
(1)
NI 43-101 Technical Report "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the
Brewery Creek Property Yukon Territory, Canada" Release Date of
November 19,
2014.(2)
Brewery Creek Technical Report, Richard Diment, PGeo May 18,
2003
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation
Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission
or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the
information contained herein. This press release contains
forward-looking information that involve various risks and
uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking
information can include without limitation statements express or
implied regarding completion of the transactions described herein,
the upcoming season at 3 Aces project, and projected grades
and gold and silver recoveries from the 2018 and proposed 2019 bulk
sample program, Actual results and future events could differ
materially from those anticipated in such information. These and
all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are
based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are
made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice.
Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to
update forward-looking information should circumstances or
management's estimates or opinions change.
Golden Predator Mining (TSXV:GPY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2024 to Aug 2024
Golden Predator Mining (TSXV:GPY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2023 to Aug 2024