Toronto-based Black Hawk Mining (TSE) will acquire Boliden Resources’ interest in the Bald Mountain copper-gold property in Maine. The purchase price is US$2 million and a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty.
Black Hawk also agreed to complete environmental and other work necessary to submit a metallic mining application in the state.
Several millions of dollars have already been spent on the property by four previous owners. This work included 536 diamond drill holes totalling 159,000 ft., metallurgical and pilot plant testing, mine design, feasibility studies and permitting.
Black Hawk says these expenditures have addressed “virtually all the technical, economic and environmental factors related to development of the project.”
The Bald Mountain deposit is described as a large, volcanogenic massive sulphide lens overlain by 20 to 90 ft. of glacial till. The deposit consists of five distinct zones of mineralization: gossan gold-silver, high-grade copper supergene, high-grade primary copper, low-grade primary copper and low-grade zinc.
Geological reserves for copper total 22 million tons grading 1.6%, while those for zinc are estimated at 13 million tons grading 2.3%. The gold-silver geological reserves are 1.4 million tons grading 0.11 oz. gold and 2.5 oz. silver per ton.
Previous owners directed most of their efforts towards development of a large, open-pit copper mine, and although this option remains open, Black Hawk intends initially to develop only the gossan gold-silver and the supergene copper zones.
Both are leachable, and the copper can be recovered by solvent extraction-electrowinning.
Reserves in the gold-silver zone which are minable by open-pit methods are estimated at 1.2 million tons grading 0.13 oz. gold and 3 oz. silver, while the supergene copper reserve base is 2.45 million tons of 2.78% copper. The waste-to-ore ratio for this option would be about 1.4-to-1.
Black Hawk says about two years will be required to obtain all necessary permits to develop the deposit. Other royalties will come into effect once production begins, and the total (including the Boliden royalty) will be equivalent to about a 4% NSR royalty.
Black Hawk has other mineral projects, including the 50%-owned Keystone gold project (near Lynn Lake, Man.) and a 100% interest in three advanced-stage nickel projects.
Drill results were recently reported for 15 holes from the Redstone nickel project near Timmins, Ont. Excluding the five holes outside the limits of the zone, the weighted average grade of the remaining 10 holes was 5.81% nickel over an average width of 5 ft.
A reserve estimate, which will be the basis for a production decision, is expected shortly.
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