Rocmec ups gold resources

Rocmec Mining (RMI-V) has added nearly 23,000 oz. to its Rocmec 1 project near 35 km west of Rouyn-Noranda, Que.

The company put out an updated resource estimate today that incorporated drilling done on its Boucher and Boucher 2 structures. The Boucher vein has now been defined over a distance of 450 metres and to a depth of 450 metres as well but mineralization is open in all directions.

Measured and indicated resources now total 570,000 tons grading 6.52 grams gold per tonne for nearly 120,000 oz. gold. A cutoff grade of 3 grams per tonne was used.

The project also has inferred resources of 1.5 million tons grading 7.4 grams gold for 360,000 oz. gold.

Rocmec has been developing resources on about 10 veins within the deposit.

The property includes a 100 metre deep two-compartment shaft and an 844 metre decline that allows access to five levels with a total of 1,700 metres of drifting.

Since 2006, Rocmec has spent more than $23 million on the project, including the installation of a 75 ton per day underground treatment plant at the 130 metre leve.

Rocmec says its treatment plant is unique in that the flotation process is a more ecological than a traditional plant because no cyanide is used.

Instead soaping agents are used after the gravity circuit, to recuperate the gold along with the copper and pyrite in the ore.

The leftover sterile material is then used as backfill so no tailings pond is required.

Rocmec says this method helps control dilution and reduces operating costs by using the thermal fragmentation mining method, only treating high grade in-situ ore in the mineralized structures.

During thermal fragmentation heat is generated by a powerful burner, powered by diesel fuel and air to create a thermal stress and break the rock (instead of using chemical explosives). The thermal reaction allows for the enlargement of 15 cm to 1 metre holes by breaking the rock in a flaking affect.

The technology is used in Russia in large-scale open pits for the drilling of large blast holes but the company says it’s a good way to selectively mine for precious metals in deposits that would be otherwise uneconomic using the existing mining methods.

Rocmec shares were trading at 4.5¢ today with a trading volume of 824,000 shares. The company has 256.6 million shares outstanding and 52-week trading range between 4¢ and 11¢.