Canada’s richest gold mine seeks new manager for next 18 years

If it isn’t doing so already, Placer Dome Inc. (TSE) will soon be looking around for a person to replace Stewart Reid, manager of the Campbell mine at Balmertown, Ont.

After 12 years at the helm of Canada’s fourth largest gold producer, Reid has indicated to his family that he will retire next year to spend more time playing golf and travelling.

Highly respected within the Red Lake community where he has worked since 1948, Reid has steered the Campbell operation through a number of important development phases.

He recently presided over a $12.6-million expansion program which will enable the company to increase its production this year to 242,000 oz gold (from ore averaging 0.596 oz gold per ton) at a cost of $138(US) per oz. That compares with 235,423 oz grade (0.640 oz) in 1987.

Published ore reserves stand at 7.3 million tons of grade 0.633 oz and are sufficient to keep the operation going for at least another 18 years.

Placer Dome will say only that it sees no reason to change Reid’s management by consensus style of leadership. But sources within the Red Lake camp say the company is unlikely to extend to his successor the kind of free hand which Reid has enjoyed over the years. Assistant manager

“There is one man there who is a strong possibility but we aren’t committing ourselves to anything,” said Henry Brehaut, Placer Dome’s senior vice-president of Canadian operations. “Sometimes it is better to bring someone else in to shake things up,” he said.

Assistant manager Keith Newman and mill superintendent John Frostiak have both been tipped as possible successors. Regardless of who the new manager will be, he (or she) will take over responsibility for developing a rich orebody which appears to have no limits.

When The Northern Miner visited the Campbell operation recently, most of the ore was being mined from above the 21st level or to a maximum depth of 3,000 ft. The company was also preparing stoping blocks on the 23rd and 24th levels while conducting exploration on level 27.

“As we go deeper, the ground is requiring more attention all the time,” said Reid who predicted that his successor will have to supplement the 4,307 ft shaft in order to increase the mine’s capacity.

Meanwhile, he said Placer Dome is getting into computers in a big way. Since 1983, the company has spent about $10 million on ground support and rock mechanics. Ground activity

To detect possible ground activity and possible rock bursts before they occur, the company has also upgraded its micro seismic monitory system.

The system which cost about $80,000 to upgrade allows Campbell’s engineering staff to pinpoint the stope areas where a tremor may have occurred and warn crews who may be in danger. “It has also given us a design criteria for crown pillars,” said Tony Makuch, assistant chief engineer. He and the other engineers can listen to conversations as far underground as the 21st level through the system’s 64 channel geophones.

A new Foxborough SMS Control Unit installed in the 1,175-ton- per-day mill allows Frostiak to monitor the mill circuit from the comfort of his own office.

When The Northern Miner toured Campbell’s underground workings, the company was busy mechanizing its cut and fill mining system, by installing 5-ton air shoots to remove muck from stopes on the 19th level. Placer Dome is also using Toro 150 scoop trams in an operation which is bringing a couple of long hole stopes on stream. Rod mill

While Campbell is considered to be a model of efficiency, the gear reducer in the mine’s rod mill disintegrated recently and when The Northern Miner visited, the operation had been running at 60% capacity since Oct 25.

Typically, the engineering and mill staff was able to install an old mill into the grinding circuit and Reid expects to meet Campbell’s production target by cranking up the system when the gear reducer is replaced.