Bachelor Lake halts mining at Desmaraisville operation

Following a 2-week “clean up” phase, the 7-year-old gold mine will be placed on a care and maintenance basis while Bachelor Lake waits for a substantial increase in the price of gold.

At a unit cost of $390(US) per oz, the mine is considered too expensive to operate at current gold prices and a high dilution factor has prevented staff getting those costs down to about $350(US) per oz.

Although the mine has suffered dilution problems almost since the day it went into production, spokesman Gerald Harron said the shut down is regarded as temporary.

“If we keep the mine dewatered, we can start the thing up again when gold prices get to an appropriate level,” he said.

Having produced 121,160 oz gold since 1982, the mine still hosts 927,900 tons of grade 0.16 oz gold per ton.

“We plan to undertake a new round of economic studies to see what the future holds,” said Harron, who predicted that a second-quarter financial statement will show a significant loss.

As reported (N.M., June 5/88), Bachelor Lake reported a net loss of $975,242 or 11.9 cents per share for the three months ended March 31. Bachelor Lake’s second shut down in three years has put an exploration program at Aur Resources’ (TSE) Hewfran East zone on hold.

Using the mines 6th and 8th levels for access, Aur has so far outlined about 144,000 tons of grade 0.18 oz in a structure which extends west of the Bachelor Lake deposit.

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