Ming suspends milling in Baie Verte, Nfld.

Mining and milling problems, combined with falling gold prices, have prompted Ming Financial (MF-A) to suspend production at its Rambler mill in Newfoundland’s Baie Verte Peninsula.

The company, which owns a 70% interest in property owner Ming Minerals, reports that recoveries in the gold circuit have fallen short of the target of 95%. However, a pre-aeration tank, currently being installed, is expected to increase recovery rates to design specifications.

Meanwhile, open-pit mining at the Stog’er Tight deposit has been complicated by variable ore grades and the discovery that the ore zone dips more steeply than previously thought. The company will therefore switch to underground mining sooner than expected on the grounds that the continuation of open-pit mining would increase the cost of waste removal and lower production rates.

Operations at Rambler are expected to resume in May or June. Until then, exploration and delineation drilling of Stog’er Tight will attempt to define additional reserves both underground and near the surface.

Combined, the Rambler and Stog’er Tight properties host four zones: Ming, Ming West, Main and Stog’er Tight. From October 1995 to July 1996, the company produced 11 million lb. copper, 5,500 oz. gold and 40,000 oz. silver from the Ming West zone.

Owing to poor projections for the price of copper in 1997 and 1998, the company installed a cyanide circuit and, in early September, began producing the mill’s first dore bars, with mill feed coming from the Main zone. In the following month, production switched to the Stog’er Tight deposit.

The company says all four zones remain relatively untested and have potential for hosting additional reserves.