Post by kenshin7 on Dec 6, 2007 22:02:21 GMT -5
A sparkle in their eyes
Shore Gold aims at diamond mine production in 2011
Murray Lyons
The StarPhoenix
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Darcie Kraft, services assistant with Shore Gold, looks at some of the acid-cleaned diamonds on display at the Bessborough Hotel
The time frame for a decision to build a large open-pit operation in the Fort a la Corne forest is getting closer, says a top official at Shore Gold Inc.
George Read, the company's senior vice-president of exploration and development, told fellow geologists at the annual Saskatchewan Geological Survey open house that Shore aims to get the company's wholly owned Star kimberlite deposit to the point where it has an independently confirmed resource of at least 200 million tonnes of kimberlite by the end of 2008.
Shore hopes to produce a final estimate of the average carat value and grade (carats per hundred tonnes) next year as well.
At that point, Read says financing of new equity and debt can be arranged after a mining plan is completed. This could potentially make 2009 the year a decision is made to fund a huge open-pit operation, which could see 40,000 tonnes of kimberlite a day fed into a processing facility.
It would probably take the better part of a year to strip away the glacial material that sits on top of the Star kimberlite so the processing of kimberlites and the sale of raw Saskatchewan diamonds might not occur until 2011. But once operational, a mine of that size and scale would have enough kimberlite to last 15 to 17 years and employ hundreds.
Even now, Read says the company has more than 270 people employed on site, most of whom are able to commute into the forest from nearby communities. In addition, companies with Saskatchewan operations such as Thyssen Mining also have crews on staff doing work such as sinking a concrete shaft into the Orion South, the next kimberlite that Shore intends to explore in detail.
Read says he does not anticipate the company will experience labour shortages as it moves toward a production decision.
"Subsequent to the (P.A.) pulp mill closing, many people have gone to Fort McMurray," Read said. "Those people would be very happy to stay at home and commute to work on a daily basis rather than spend two weeks in and two weeks off and live in a trailer camp."
Long before the Star kimberlite would be depleted, Read says Shore and its partner, Newmont Resources, are hoping to have proven diamond resources at one or two other kimberlites in the adjacent Fort a la Corne joint venture that would provide at least equal tonnage and diamond grades to Star.
Shore recently raised an additional $30 million from the market and now has $80 million in the bank to fund its exploration program for the next few years. An additional $19 million of Shore's cash could be freed up next year if its investment in asset-backed commercial paper is made liquid again. For now, Read says the company can't count that money as an asset.
Read admits Shore shareholders in the past year have not liked some of the results from the 30-tonne bulk samples pulled out of the kimberlite by the large diameter drilling program conducted from the surface. That's because the diamond grades were only half of what Shore achieved underground at Star in the much larger 300-tonne samples.
"There is diamond breakage by the drills that we cannot avoid," he said.
To show that large diamonds are being destroyed by the drilling, Read says Shore went back underground at Star and took a small 30-tonne sample. This technique showed the carat count was almost as good as the larger 300-tonne samples Shore had taken previously underground.
mlyons@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007
Shore Gold aims at diamond mine production in 2011
Murray Lyons
The StarPhoenix
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Darcie Kraft, services assistant with Shore Gold, looks at some of the acid-cleaned diamonds on display at the Bessborough Hotel
The time frame for a decision to build a large open-pit operation in the Fort a la Corne forest is getting closer, says a top official at Shore Gold Inc.
George Read, the company's senior vice-president of exploration and development, told fellow geologists at the annual Saskatchewan Geological Survey open house that Shore aims to get the company's wholly owned Star kimberlite deposit to the point where it has an independently confirmed resource of at least 200 million tonnes of kimberlite by the end of 2008.
Shore hopes to produce a final estimate of the average carat value and grade (carats per hundred tonnes) next year as well.
At that point, Read says financing of new equity and debt can be arranged after a mining plan is completed. This could potentially make 2009 the year a decision is made to fund a huge open-pit operation, which could see 40,000 tonnes of kimberlite a day fed into a processing facility.
It would probably take the better part of a year to strip away the glacial material that sits on top of the Star kimberlite so the processing of kimberlites and the sale of raw Saskatchewan diamonds might not occur until 2011. But once operational, a mine of that size and scale would have enough kimberlite to last 15 to 17 years and employ hundreds.
Even now, Read says the company has more than 270 people employed on site, most of whom are able to commute into the forest from nearby communities. In addition, companies with Saskatchewan operations such as Thyssen Mining also have crews on staff doing work such as sinking a concrete shaft into the Orion South, the next kimberlite that Shore intends to explore in detail.
Read says he does not anticipate the company will experience labour shortages as it moves toward a production decision.
"Subsequent to the (P.A.) pulp mill closing, many people have gone to Fort McMurray," Read said. "Those people would be very happy to stay at home and commute to work on a daily basis rather than spend two weeks in and two weeks off and live in a trailer camp."
Long before the Star kimberlite would be depleted, Read says Shore and its partner, Newmont Resources, are hoping to have proven diamond resources at one or two other kimberlites in the adjacent Fort a la Corne joint venture that would provide at least equal tonnage and diamond grades to Star.
Shore recently raised an additional $30 million from the market and now has $80 million in the bank to fund its exploration program for the next few years. An additional $19 million of Shore's cash could be freed up next year if its investment in asset-backed commercial paper is made liquid again. For now, Read says the company can't count that money as an asset.
Read admits Shore shareholders in the past year have not liked some of the results from the 30-tonne bulk samples pulled out of the kimberlite by the large diameter drilling program conducted from the surface. That's because the diamond grades were only half of what Shore achieved underground at Star in the much larger 300-tonne samples.
"There is diamond breakage by the drills that we cannot avoid," he said.
To show that large diamonds are being destroyed by the drilling, Read says Shore went back underground at Star and took a small 30-tonne sample. This technique showed the carat count was almost as good as the larger 300-tonne samples Shore had taken previously underground.
mlyons@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007
