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Mining activity in northern B.C
Surge Copper.
MINING IN NORTHERN B.C.
A roundup of notable activity
In June 2021, PWC reported that Canada’s mining sector performed fairly well during the COVID-19 pandemic, with initial uncertainty giving way to “a recovery for commodity prices that has delivered significant gains to investors throughout much of 2020 and into 2021.”
The report also states, “This agility put many Canadian miners in a good position to benefit as prices of commodities like gold, copper and iron ore began to rise last year and have generally remained strong in 2021”.
B.C.’s northern mining community was on the receiving end of many of these industry wins. Some of the more significant occurrences are as follows.
AT A GLANCE
Surge Copper is advancing the Ootsa and Berg projects in B.C. with large Cu-Au-Mo-Ag deposits surrounding a mine and mill complex.
The company owns a 100 per cent interest in the Ootsa Property, an advanced stage exploration project containing the East Seel, West Seel, and Ox porphyry deposits located adjacent to the open pit Huckleberry Copper Mine owned by Imperial Metals. The Ootsa Property contains pit constrained NI 43-101 compliant resources of copper, gold, molybdenum, and silver in the Measured and Indicated categories.
The company is also earning into a 70 per cent interest in the Berg Property from Centerra Gold. Berg is a large, advanced-stage exploration project located 28 kilometres northwest of the Ootsa deposits. Berg contains pit constrained 43-101 compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, and silver in the Measured and Indicated categories.
Also making news in 2021 are the results from the Consolidated Woodjam Copper Corp. drilling program at the Woodjam copper gold porphyry project near the town of Horsefly, approximately 50 kilometres northeast of the community of Williams Lake. Woodjam is located within the prolific Quesnel Terrane.
The company has completed a 3913.63 m, nine-hole drill program. Six holes completed in the Deerhorn Zone are in the lab and results are pending. Already released results include one hole in the Southeast Zone and two in the Megaton Target. Hole SE21-89 was collared in the higher grade copper-gold central portion of the Southeast Zone to reduce drill hole spacing for better definition and continuity.
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kilometres along strike, north easterly, from the Southeast Zone. These northwest directed holes, MT21-07 and 08, were located approximately 350 metres apart along the southeast side of the IP anomaly. Both holes intersected copper mineralization associated with quartz stock work similar to the style of mineralization at the southeast zone. Alteration and the style of mineralization suggests that these holes are into a peripheral zone of the occurrence and are comparable to holes just outside the main body of the southeast zone.
The Megaton IP target suggests that the southeast zone mineralizing system continues for two to four kilometres to the northeast and further drilling will be needed to adequately explore the Megaton Target area.
Centerra Gold reports solid performance at its Mount Milligan mine, located approximately 155 kilometres northwest of Prince George. The mine produced 161,855 ounces of gold and 82.8 million pounds of copper in 2020.
Its 2021 exploration plan focused on 40,000 metres of drilling to test the mineralization below the 2020 ultimate pit in the MBX and 66 zones at a cost of $9MM. Centerra continued work on its continuous improvement projects at Mount Milligan in 2021, including secondary crusher improvements and the installation of staged floatation reactors, which is expected to improve metal recoveries in future years.
The company also operates the Kemess mine, located in north central B.C. The mine is a low-cost brownfield development asset that is host to the feasibility-stage Kemess Underground deposit and preliminary economic assessment level Kemess East projects. Plans are to establish a fly-in, fly-out camp, permitted open pit tailings storage facility, and a metallurgical facility.
In September 2021, Artemis Gold Inc. filed the “Blackwater Gold Project NI 43-101 Technical Report on Updated Feasibility Study”. Highlights from the updated feasibility study include higher initial throughput (phase 1 throughput has been expanded 9 per cent to 6 million tonnes per annum), streamlined phase 2 and 3 expansions, accelerated phase 2 and phase 3 expansions (phase 2 expansion to 9Mtpa in year five and up to 12Mtpa in year 6), phase 3 expansion to 15Mtpa in year 10 and up to 20Mtpa in year 11. The update also includes an ESG commitment in stage 1 development phase, as well as a reduction from three to two mineral processing trains to attain phase 3 throughput of 20Mtpa.
Osisko Development Corp., through its 100-per-centowned subsidiary Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd., is closer to constructing and operating its Cariboo Gold project, an underground gold mine and associated infrastructure, located in the historic Cariboo Mining District near the City of Quesnel.
Timelines going forward see production at the mine begin in 2023. The feasibility study is tracking for H1 2022 and permits are expected in 2022. This flagship asset is expected to be capable of producing over 200 koz per annum.
The updated mineral resource estimate for the Cariboo Gold Project includes 3.2 million ounces of gold (21.4 million tonnes grading 4.6 g/t Au) in the Measured and Indicated resource category, and 2.7 million ounces of gold (21.6 million tonnes grading 3.9 g/t Au) in the Inferred resource category. O
Blackwater/Artemis Gold. Consolidated Woodjam Copper Corp.
