Canada’s four newest gold mines – by Alisha Hiyate (Canadian Mining Journal – September 13, 2017)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

It’s been tough for the last several years to get mine financing, but these four new Canadian gold mines, all coming on stream this year, prove that it hasn’t been impossible. The challenges aren’t over once the financing is in hand or the construction is complete, however. Read how these mines are dealing with the issues – big and small – that come with working the bugs out of a new operation.

BRUCEJACK – Pretium Resources – B.C.

Pretium Resources’ Brucejack mine, in B.C.’s Golden Triangle, achieved commercial production in July – only eight years after the super high grade Valley of the Kings deposit at the project was discovered.

The deposit was discovered in 2009 by Silver Standard Resources and a year later, Pretium Resources had its IPO and acquired the project. Ever since then, Pretium has been pushing hard to get the underground mine into production. In fact, the mine achieved commercial production three months early.

Even before introducing first ore to the mill in May, the company was focused on achieving name plate capacity of 2,700 t/y as quickly as possible on low grade ore. That was achieved by the end of July, and the focus for the rest of the year is now on increasing the grade of the ore in the mill.

As the grade to the mill increases the company must also optimize the gravity circuit and then the float circuit at Brucejack: both gold doré and a gold-silver concentrate are produced onsite.

“The target is to be at steady state production levels by the end of this year,” said president and CEO Joseph Ovsenek in a late August interview. “That’s a big challenge, but I think everyone’s working hard to achieve it.”

For the rest of this article: http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/features/canadas-four-newest-gold-mines/