BOOM BOOM
Atlas Copco Canada has an exAtensive range of 2-boom jumbos Ato suit almost any heading size. Most units can also be equipped with basket booms for bolting and/or blasthole charging, as well as a rod-…
News
NEW MINES
The pace of mine-building is slowing. In January, 1988, we reported that 32 new Canadian mines would produce ore before year-end. In 1989, we listed 18 new mines that were being readied for start-up. …
50 Years Ago (January 02, 1990)
THE NORTHERN MINER, JANUARY, 1940 NEW DEPTHS, NEW ORE CHANCES FOR LAMAQUE Lamaque Gold Mines is preparing to sink its main No. 7 shaft from 2,000 ft to 3,600 ft below surface, The Northern Miner can a…
GOLDEN GENESIS
The following qualifies as the most imaginative speech given this year by a company president to his shareholders. Harvey Atkin, an actor, businessman and president of Armistice Resources, delivered t…
Letters (January 02, 1990)
LEARNING THE WHOLE PICTURE All too often, the failure of a new mine is attributed to overestimating of reserves or ore grade by geologists, while success is attributed to the making of the mine by min…
COUNTING BEANS
These days, controlling and reducing costs is one of the most important challenges facing the Canadian mining industry. Gone are the days when a mine manager could offset poor cost performance by dipp…
OVERCOMING THE NUGGET EFFECT: Extracting all the gold contained in
The infamous “nugget effect” can be bad news for promoters of gold properties. Gold is unevenly distributed in such deposits, and so sampling can have the effect of either over-or under-estimating the…
ENGINEERING A FUTURE
The feast-or-famine extremes to which the mining industry is subject also plague mining schools. In 1982 for example, the Department of Mining Engineering at Queen’s University was polishing the skill…
IN THE FRONT LINE; The Role of the Operator in Joint Ventures
It is common for one of the parties to a joint venture to have a particular wish to be the operator. This desire often arises when the party putting up the money wants to have control over how its mon…
OPERATIONS MAN: Placer Dome’s Tony Petrina
In 1951, the MacLeod Cockshutt gold mine near Geraldton, Ont., hired the rangy, 16-year-old son of one of its miners. The boy had just graduated from high school, tops in a sparse class of only seven….
ALASKA’S RED DOG
Contrary to what some may think, the Red Dog mine in northwestern Alaska has not been built on a grand scale — four 85-ton trucks, a couple of loaders and drills. Practically any medium-sized heap le…
JOHNNY MOUNTAIN GOLD
Situated 110 km northwest of Stewart, B.C., the Johnny Mountain gold mine has geological reserves of 796,000 tonnes grading 18.9 g per tonne. The gold vein deposit is owned by Skyline Gold Corp. Coppe…