B.Y.G. plans open pit production for Yukon mine

Upon completion of a $5.28 million capital program to result in construction of an open pit, conventional vat leach mine targeted to be operational by September, 1989, the property will be owned 69% by B.Y.G. and 31% by Chevron. B.Y.G. is now negotiating the necessary funding to resume property work in April.

Thornton Donaldson, president of B.Y.G., said the project “is estimated to payout and generate a substantial profit of $3.64 million in less than 15 months.” Further development of the property for open pit, underground and heap leach potential was also recommended, the company said.

Total ore reserves from six zones are reported as 1,050,925 tons (proven, probable and possible) grading 0.27 oz gold and 5.5 oz silver per ton. Included in the reserves is a proven block of 137,378 tons grading 0.304 oz gold and 2.86 oz silver, mineable by open pits in the Brown McDade zone. Proven and probable reserves from four deposits are reported as 636,000 tons grading 0.344 oz gold and 5.745 oz silver, which the company said is sufficient for six years production.

Gold and silver are reported to occur in a series of subparallel, steeply dipping quartz sulphide veins. The company noted that four of the deposits — Brown McDade, Flex, Orloff King and Webber — are oxidized to considerable depths. The property also contains three known deposits containing underground sulphide ore; Huestis, Webber and Flex.

All of the deposits are open to reserve extension to depth, and at least in one direction along strike. The company said additional work is also warranted on 13 other partially explored mineralized zones on the property.

The property, previously known as Mt. Nansen, was mined briefly in the late sixties and again in the mid-seventies by a previous operator. Poor recovery of gold due to the refractory nature of sulphide ores and lack of a cyanide circuit to treat oxide ores were cited as the reasons for the mine closure. Recent cyanide amenability tests carried out on samples from the Brown McDade zone are reported to have indicated the open pittable material should average 86% recovery using a grind of 70% minus 74 microns and a 24-hour hold in the tanks.

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