Improvements continue at the Teck-Corona Williams mine.

The Teck-Corona Williams mine at Hemlo, Ont., is expected to produce about 500,000 oz. of gold this year, maintaining its 1989 status as the largest gold bullion producer in the nation. The mine’s immediate priorities, listed in Teck’s 1989 annual report, included maintaining a stable workforce, determining how the designed mill throughput of 6,000 tonnes per day could be achieved quickly and cost-effectively, and to establish programs to reduce both operating and capital expenditures.

In an interview with The Northern Miner, Mike Lipkewich, Teck’s vice-president of mining, said he thinks operating costs this year will be about $50 per tonne. By the end of 1989, the mine had reached the designed mill throughput rate and had reduced operating costs by about $7 per tonne milled, or from $62 to $55. “We are targeting another $5 reduction in operating costs for this year and I think that’s a reasonable objective to attain,” Lipkewich said. He said there have been austerity programs and a refocusing of attention to these costs that have assisted the mine in reaching its objectives.

“The mine is going very well and I think we’ve been very successful in achieving a stable workforce that’s efficient. Morale at the mine is high.”

Responding to a question regarding the success of programs to lower capital expenditures, Lipkewich said those costs are hard to compare between 1989 and 1990 because the expansion at the mill from 3,000 tonnes per day to 6,000 tonnes per day is mostly completed and accounted for most of the capital expenditures in the past year. Current capital expenditures are, therefore, sharply lower than in the past year.