Cross-Cuts (October 04, 1990)

A BRISK TRIP

The trend to commuter mines in the north — Echo Bay’s Lupin and Placer Dome’s Detour Lake mines being key instances — will likely continue. In the Yukon, for example, mine workers for the proposed Mt. Hundere base metal project would commute from Watson Lake, an established community on the Alaska Highway, to the mine site. Says Piers McDonald, Yukon minister of economic development: “The ideal situation is one in which workers at a mine can go home to their families every day after work as most people can do.”

Her comments, printed in a Yukon government publication, were followed by other examples of future commuter mines. The Wellgreen project is a huge copper, nickel and platinum-group metal play that will probably be a commuter operation if it goes into production.

WORLD FLIPS

OVER GOLD COINS

Gold bullion coins are in vogue. International sales during the first half of 1990 are 27% ahead of sales for the same period last year, according to the World Gold Council, as reported in The Gold Gazette. Figures show sales reached 1.5 million oz. for the American Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf and other popular coins.

“Total tonnage of fine gold could top 100 tonnes this year, suggesting that sales may have finally bottomed out,” said the WGC. Bargain-hunters were said to be an important factor in the markets, not only in Asia but also in Europe where the gold price in most currencies is at a 10-year low.

YUKON ACTS ON

ENVIRONMENTAL

PROPOSALS

The government of the Yukon has become the first in Canada to adopt the major recommendations of the 1987 National Task Force on Environment and Economy, which had called for the creation of environmental round tables, government action plans and conservation strategies for each province and territory. The government of the Yukon has responded by establishing the Yukon Conservatiin Strategy, a comprehensive management plan to guide use of the territory’s natural environment into the 21st century, according to a news release. The territorial government has committed itself to working with Ottawa in reforming the Quartz and Placer Mining Acts in accordance with the Northern Mineral Policy; streamlining licencing and permitting for mining activities; and ensuring that regulatory changes occur in an open and participatory manner. Yukon land use will be a major issue in the 1990s.

TIGHT COPPER

SUPPLY

Good news for copper mines! According to Commodity Research Unit, copper will be in tight supply through this decade. The research firm forecasts that the net effect of mine closings and capacity expansions will be a 2.6% annual growth in mine production until 1995. Since 1985, copper consumption has grown by an annual 3.4% per year.

This is expected to continue and supplies could become tight by 1995.

BORING IS BEAUTIFUL

And now for something completely different — and boring. n organization has been chartered to promote the exchange of information associated with rock-boring. Members include experts in rock-boring from Baker Hughes Mining Tools, Boretec Inc., Dynatec Mining, Inco Ltd., Laurentian University, Redpath Raiseboriig, Robbins Mining Equipment, Tamrock Raiseborers, and other companies.

The World Rock Boring Association is an international organization whose members will be drawn from major mining centres all over the world.

The organization plans a short course on hard rock boring this fall in Sudbury, Ont., and will be producing a quarterly newsletter called The Boring News out of Lively (which seems contradictory), Ont., P.O. Box 1653 P0M 2E0.

AIRSHIP SERVICE TO SNIP A SNAP

It probably won’t be the first time hovercraft are deployed in the production of minerals. Still, Cominco’s hovercraft freighters, linking the Snip gold project in northwestern British Columbia to civilization, should turn a few heads along the Iskut riverbank when they begin hauling concentrates.

The 10-tonne airship will connect Snip with Wrangell, Alaska, at the mouth of the Iskut River. The craft can make the 220-km round trip about 10 times a week.

Cominco expects production at Snip will begin later this year. Earlier estimates had established an advanced production start, but Cominco redrilled the deposit on close spacing last year. Ore reserves stand at one million tons grading 0.96 oz. gold per ton (or 936,000 tonnes grading 32.9 grams per tonne). The hovercraft will carry concentrates to the seaport.