Claude’s Seabee mine enters tune-up phase

Having brought its high-grade Seabee gold mine in Saskatchewan to the threshold of production, Claude Resources (TSE) expects to announce the first gold pour within the next couple of weeks.

Only the fourth underground gold producer in Saskatchewan, Seabee was built in often frigid conditions at a cost of $22.9 million and is targeted to produce 52,000 oz. annually when it reaches the commercial stage next year. When The Northern Miner recently talked to Peter Gummer, Claude’s vice-president of exploration, temperatures had dropped to “20 degrees C and nearby Laonil Lake was capped by six inches of ice.

But construction of the 440-ton-per-day mine and mill has gone smoothly, said Gummer, who paid tribute to contractors Orocon Inc. and Tonto Mining for what he called a first-class effort.

Situated about 78 miles northeast of La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan, the Seabee property was recently connected to transmission lines stretching 150 miles from Island Falls to the Cigar Lake and Key Lake uranium mines. Claude became the first new development project to tap into that system when power was switched on as scheduled Nov. 1.

Over the next few months, work crews will tune up the conventional carbon-in-pulp milling system by running 50,000 tons of stockpiled material grading 0.2-0.4 oz. per ton through the circuit. While Gummer said he expects to see several gold pours before Christmas, the ribbon-cutting ceremony isn’t scheduled until next spring.

As mining operations have ceased at the Fork Lake mine — Saskatchewan’s only other gold producer — Seabee is regarded as an important project within the La Ronge region.

A fly-in/fly-out operation, the new gold mine will employ 85 full-time personnel initially on a 2-week rotation basis and may provide work for more, depending on the outcome of exploration in the surrounding area. Gold mineralization in seven zones outlined on the Seabee property occurs in concentrations of quartz, tourmaline and pyrite measuring up to 30 ft. wide, 1,000 ft. long and 1,200 ft. deep

But initial output is predicated on zones two and five which contain 1.1 million tons of proven and probable reserves grading 0.40 oz. gold per ton. Access to those reserves is provided by a 3,000-ft. decline. As the mill can easily be expanded to 600 tons per day, Gummer says his company hopes to increase production in the near future by continuing to develop six years of minable reserves.

Based on new zones encountered on the Seabee property last winter, the potential for new ore-grade discoveries and extensions of known ore zones is thought to be excellent. The company has also had some success five miles east of Seabee on the Santoy Lake property where two zones have been trenched and worked for bulk samples. Santoy Lake is a joint venture involving Claude and Manchester Resources (ASE).