Madeleine Mines on stream for Lac des Iles production

Exploration and development of the Lac des Iles platinum-palladium deposit in northwestern Ontario continues with production expected to be under way by June, or failing that later this year, the president of Madeleine Mines said.

J. P. Sheridan, addressing a recent “special topics class” presented by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the University of Toronto’s department of geology and the Ontario Geological Survey, said Madeleine expects to produce 150,000 oz platinum group metals annually from the property, along with gold, copper and nickel.

Initially, a large, low-cost, open pit operation involving a shovel or scoop-tram is envisioned to a depth of 600-700 ft, Sheridan said.

Planned is a 3,000-ton-per-day milling facility to be fed, Sheridan said, by four workers: one driller, one shovel operator and two truck drivers. He compared his project to a producing, labor-intensive South African underground mining operation where he said 3,000 workers are needed to feed a mill of the same capacity. (South Africa produces 82% of the world’s platinum, and the Soviet Union 9%.)

Using slides to illustrate his talk, Sheridan showed a picture of the outside of the milling plant which Madeleine had transported from a closed copper mine in Quebec’s Gaspe area and re-assembled at the Lac des Iles property, located about 40 miles north of Thunder Bay. Inside, the milling machinery is being installed, he said. (Another slide provided an aerial view of a log-cabin-type development, which Sheridan said will be the directors’ lodge, bordering a lake.) Refinery plans

Mill concentrate will be shipped to a reduction facility at Thunder Bay, where a matte will be produced. Sheridan said initially the matte will be shipped to the U.S. for refining; eventually the company hopes to build a refinery in Calgary.

Total estimated cost is $15 per ton, including a mining and milling cost of $9 per ton, he said.

In addition to an output of 150,000 oz platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium), Madeleine is forecasting annual production of 20,000 oz gold and two million lb each of copper and nickel per year.

Plans call for the Roby zone to be mined first. In its 1986 annual report, Madeleine reports the Roby zone to be more than 2,000 ft long, a maximum 375 ft wide, open at depth and grading about 0.18 oz platinum group metals.

(Shearson Lehman, in its 1987 review of the world platinum industry, quotes drill-proven, drill-indicated and inferred reserves for the Lac des Iles deposit of almost 22.5 million tons grading 0.2 oz platinum group metals.)

Best section of a core sample drilled to date is 110 ft of 0.47 platinum group metals, Sheridan said.

North America’s only producing platinum-palladium mine is the Stillwater in Montana.