Hope Brook mill 4-week shutdown could hurt output

But general manager Bill Fotheringham said he doesn’t know how the 4-week shut down will affect gold production at an operation that was expected to produce about 140,000 oz of the yellow metal in 1989.

Hope Brook closed the mill down to ensure that its effluent treatment facilities were efficient enough to meet regulatory standards.

Fotheringham said he also wanted to make sure that the tailings pond was deep enough to prevent cyanide solution from spilling out into the environment during spring run off.

Hope Brook is using a hydrogen peroxide treatment process to neutralize cyanide contained in mine thickeners and back-fill slurry. However, changes were made to the pumping equipment, when the system failed to work properly.

During the shutdown, Hope Brook installed additional pumping and pipeline facilities which will allow larger volumes of liquids to be treated. La rger containment areas will also allow more effluent to be neutralized through natural exposure to the sun and air.

“It’s hard to say how much gold production can be recouped,” said Fotheringham. “We will do our best to make it up,” he said.

Development and production activities continued in the underground mine during mill shut down and routine maintenance was performed on the process plant.

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