A gravity concentrator has been purchased by New Privateer Mine for its small mining operation near Zeballos on Vancouver Island. The pilot plant is rated at 100 tons per day but Harvey H. Cohen, president, says the facility could handle about 125 tons when sufficient feed is available.
Purchased in the United States for cash, the plant is being serviced in Vancouver prior to being installed at the mine site. And he predicts it will provide significant cash flow, particularly from ore stockpiled during underground development of one especially high grade vein structure.
New Privateer recently hired an on-site mine manager to relieve pressure on its president who incidentally is a highly experienced and capable mining engineer. Development work is continuing underground and vertical raises are being driven on 32-ft centres into the No 3 vein. These will be used as ore passes to transfer broken muck from sub-level stoping areas to the main haulage level.
The raises are required in order to prove up reserves and an additional 26,000 tons will be added to proven reserves of 135,000 tons, he says. The grade of those reserves is estimated to be 0.5 oz gold and 0.2 oz silver although selective mining techniques have often yielded ore that averaged much higher.
As an example, the first 25 ft of the No 1 raise returned a weighted average gold content of 6.85 oz across 10 in of vein. Diluted over a mining width of 3-4 ft it would still be quite high, the company notes. Mr Cohen. says the No 3 working has provided an alternative haulageway into the older workings where the company plans to carry out operations.
New Privateer also intends to drive a new lower adit into the workings. The 1,500-ft mine entry will permit exploration and development of the lower levels of the mine. The lower level is currently flooded, he points out.
A plan has been formulated to access the No 4 and No 5 veins on the 1,100 level. Both of these have been exposed on another level and they could represent another source of ore for the plant, he confirms.
The company has budgeted $500,000 for the mill and Mr Cohen claims there are enough working faces to supply a 100-ton mill. Eight working places exist at the moment but only 4-5 would be needed, he says. Stoping widths are narrow, often as low as three feet, and vein material is usually blasted out first, then the remainder of the round. The vein material is sorted outside the mine portal to isolate the high grade.
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