Along with gold, the Hope Brook orebody runs about 0.2% copper. Until now the copper was discharged to the tails. However, on her last tour of inspection in early March, President and Chief Executive Margaret Witte floated the idea of installing a copper circuit. The plant is now being built.
“It (the copper flotation circuit) isn’t proven,” cautions David Anthony, formerly the mill superintendent and now temporarily in charge of the project. “But the potential is significant.”
Royal Oak estimates the circuit could yield between 20 and 40 tons of concentrates per day grading 20% copper and one ounce of gold per ton (annually, between 7,000 and 14,000 oz. gold and about 3-6 million lb. copper).
The project was first discussed early in March and Anthony estimates it will be operating by May. That’s the Royal Oak style — fast, innovative and all in-house if possible. The flotation cells were bought second hand, as were structural steel and dryers.
Mine Manager Keith Weston also points out a longer-term benefit — a profitable copper flotation circuit might mean a redefinition of reserves (upwards, of course). Reserves as of late 1991 were 10,276,000 tons of “minable ore and mineralized material” grading 0.11 oz. per ton. A more up-to-date reserve figure will be published in Royal Oak’s 1992 annual report.
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