EXPLORATION ’94 — Remote Eskay Creek project on schedule for

In spite of its remote location in northwestern British Columbia and the likelihood of a harsh winter ahead, the Eskay Creek project remains on budget and on schedule.

The $75-million gold-silver property is scheduled to start up in the dead of winter, and, by spring, operators will have dealt with freezing temperatures, heavy snowfalls (up to 60 ft.) and the debugging that is typical of all new mines.

The adverse winter season will essentially be the acid test for determining whether ore can be kept flowing from the mountainous mine site to the waiting rail cars and bulk-freight carriers below.

Eskay Creek, as Homestake Canada President Ronald Parker points out, is unusual in two respects — it will produce an extremely high grade of ore, and the crushed ore will be transported to either Japan or Quebec for final processing.

“We don’t have to concentrate it because nature has done that for us,” Parker says.

The mine’s ore will be trucked either to Kitwanga for rail transport to a Quebec smelter, or to Stewart where it will be reloaded for bulk carrier transport and shipped to Japan for smelting. Either way, the trucks transporting the crushed ore will have to roll over 60 km of gravel road to reach Hwy. 37.

Homestake considered constructing a mill on site, but the 8-l0-year lifespan was deemed too short to justify the capital cost of doing so. As a result, unmilled ore will be transported to smelters thousands of miles away. Planned revenues are dependent on the operators’ ability to keep the crushed ore moving on the trucks. However, the mine site does offer some storage area if the road becomes closed, and there is also storage capacity at Kitwanga and Stewart.

Eskay Creek is wholly owned by Prime Resources Group (TSE), a gold-mining company with a 40% interest in the Snip mine (Cominco holds the remainder), which is also in the region. Homestake Canada, a subsidiary of Homestake Mining (NYSE), owns 51% of Prime’s outstanding shares and provides managerial, technical and administrative services under contract to Prime. The first ore trucks, pushing through the winter wilderness, will have the distinction of driving Prime into the ranks of becoming “one of the largest silver producers in North America,” says Parker.

The ore produced on site offers little glitter, being black or dull grey in color. But there is real beauty in the assays, which point to 1.9 oz. gold and 85.5 oz. silver per ton, plus base metals credits.

Average daily production has been set at 330 tons during the first year and 100,000 tons per year thereafter. (Estimates for the first year are conservative, as operators want to ensure that they can fulfil promises made to customers.)

A whirlwind summer construction schedule resulted in the base camp reaching near-completion. Prime received its mine development certificate from the provincial government in March, and construction started the following month. Road construction had been initiated prior to the certificate being granted, and much of this work was supplied by native labor crews.

“We really fast-tracked the whole project,” says Parker, adding that foundations for buildings were often poured before the final design was finished. The key was to pour the foundations large enough to accommodate the final design.

Even pushing the road through was a major undertaking, as crews could not build on flat ground. “When you are dealing with 60 ft. of snow, you want to be able to push it over the side,” explains Parker. The access route to the mine crossed 11 rivers and creeks. Adapted railway boxcars were used for temporary bridges so that crews could gain access to regions and construct permanent crossings.

By early November, the major buildings had either been completed or were in the last stages of being constructed.

Situated at the base camp are the 125-man bunkhouse, office, assay lab, generator plant, ore crushing and blending facility, and ore backfill plant where waste rock is blended with concrete for backfilling the mined-out underground area. Much of the rapid construction was made possible by using modular buildings shipped to the site by containers.

“The facilities are 95% complete and the first ore shipment is going to be heading towards the smelters in January, l995,” says Parker. The mine site is perched at an elevation of 3,000 ft. Declines are being driven through the mountain and ore will be removed by load-haul-dump machines and trucks, then reduced to dimensions of 2 inches or less. Mining contractor Procon has been hired to extract the ore.

Access to each stoping area will be provided by crosscuts driven at a minus-15% grade off the main decline. “Each crosscut will provide access to four or five lifts by progressively slashing the back until a plus-15% grade is achieved,” says Parker.

Initially, the labor force on site consisted of up to l40 construction workers. The workforce has gradually been shifting in favor of qualified miners and technicians who are needed to run the equipment and crushing facilities.

At startup, the site will employ 80-90 workers, of which 35 will be underground workers, 25-30 will be technical staff, and another 20-30 will help maintain roads and support services.

Parker says Prime received much support from the provincial government in preparing for the mine opening. He adds that the permitting process was extensive and often “trying,” but “fair.”

“I think that if a company is environmentally conscientious and committed to operating safe mines, it can operate any place in Canada,” says Parker. — The author is a freelance writer based in Vancouver, B.C.