San Gold flips switch at Bissett (April 24, 2006)

San Gold (SGR-V, SGRCF-O) has started processing stockpiled ore at the Rice Lake mill near Bissett, Man., in preparation for putting the San Antonio gold mine back into production.

The mill will run at about 900 tonnes per day, some 130 tonnes below its rated capacity, to process both stockpiled material from previous operators at the mine and development ore from San’s current stope preparation on deep levels at the mine (which San Gold has re-christened Rice Lake).

The main work that has gone into the mill since San took over from Harmony Gold Mining (HMY-N, HRM-L) was simple refurbishment of the mill, although San has added a gravity circuit that it expects will increase recovery to around 95%. The mill will process lower-grade material until production ore becomes available, with the blend gradually moving to production grades.

Drilling on the western strike extension of the Bisset “SAM” volcanic host rock, about 1 km west of the shaft, has intersected a 3.4-metre zone grading 21 grams gold per tonne. The intersection is about 300 metres west of the nearest mine workings. Drilling at depth below known resources at the mine is ongoing.

Measured and indicated resources at Bissett were pegged at 1.1 million tonnes grading 8.8 grams gold per tonne when San Gold took over in 2004. Another 667,000 tonnes are inferred, at an average 10.6 grams. Economic studies at the time put reserves at 818,000 tonnes grading 9.3 grams per tonne.