Arimetco to restart Paradise Peak

Toronto-listed Arimetco International is moving ahead with plans to reactivate the Paradise Peak gold mine in Nevada.

The company requires another two months to prepare the leach pads and recondition the Merrill-Crowe plant.

Operations will resume with the leaching of existing heaps, and gold production is projected at 2,500 oz. per month. Arimetco also plans to mine oxidized ore from the Paradise Peak and Ketchup Flats pits, beginning in the third quarter, and will announce a grade and tonnage estimate once mine plans are complete.

At the nearby Sullivan orebody, Arimetco is receiving encouraging results from metallurgical tests. The company test-processed copper-gold ores with sequential leaching, recovering 75%-90% of the copper following a 2-week cycle. After washing and neutralizing the heap, cyanide leaching recovered 80% of the gold.

The Sullivan deposit hosts 17 million tons grading 0.34% copper and 0.026 oz. gold per ton, plus another 8.5 million tons grading 0.32% copper.

At a mining rate of 70,000 tons per week, the operation should produce 50,000 lb. copper per day and 70,000 oz. gold per year.

Arimetco also operates the Yerington copper project in Nevada and the Johnson Camp copper project in Arizona. At each of these heap-leach operations, installation and commissioning of 3-stage crushing plants are complete.

The company is experiencing delays, however, in the permitting process for the Zonia copper project near Prescott, Ariz. Development of the project is not expected before mid-1997.