Suppliers News (April 30, 2007)

Atlas-Faucet to rehab Hooper

SNS Silver (SNS-V, SNSFF-O) has hired Atlas-Faucet Contracting (AFC) to start rehabilitation work on the Hooper Tunnel, the main access point for the lower Crescent silver mine in Idaho’s prolific Coeur d’Alene district.

One of the determining factors in selecting AFC as its contractor was that the firm is licensed to both work and use explosives in Idaho.

During the last two weeks of April, excavation work started at Hooper, with the project expected to take three to six months to finish.

The timeframe depends on getting through a slough near the entrance to the Hooper Tunnel. The hoist room at the Crescent mine is about 1 mile beyond the slough or swampy area. Once AFC gets through the slough, SNS Silver will have a better idea of how long it will take AFC to reach the hoist room.

Diamond-drill sites will be built at various locations as the AFC crew makes its way through the tunnel. These will be used to drill veins above and below the Hooper level. SNS geologist Brian White is currently working on an underground drill program consisting of more than 100,000 ft.

SNS Silver owns 100% of the Crescent mine, at one time a high-grade silver producer. From 1917 through 1982, the property produced 25 million oz. silver at an average grade of 27.3 oz. per short ton. When it last shut down in the 1980s, previous operators of Crescent reported more than 9 million oz. silver in the resource category at an average grade of 18 oz. per ton (not compliant with National Instrument 43-101).

The property lies between two world-class silver producers, the Sunshine mine, which has produced more than 300 million oz. silver, and the Bunker Hill mine, which produced about 150 million oz. silver.

AFC offers a number of services, including site evaluation, feasibility studies, mine development and rehab and underground drilling work.

Adanac to host Finnish ball (mill)

Adanac Molybdenum (AUA-V, AUAYF-O) with some advice from its engineering contractor Amec America, a subsidiary of London-based AMEC (AMCBF-O, AMEC-L), has selected Outotec (formerly Outokumpu Technology Minerals Processing) to supply a ball mill for the Ruby Creek molybdenum project near Atlin, B.C.

The mill, with its requisite controls, motors and some spare parts, should arrive in late 2008.

The mill will measure 22 ft. in diameter by 27 ft. in length, with steel liners built with grate discharge using Outotec’s patented Turbo Pulp Lifter (TPL) technology. The mill will be capable of processing 1,100 tonnes per hour of milled ore for the flotation circuit.

Powered by two motors continuously drawing about 8 megawatts, the mill will form the core of the milling process.

Based in Espoo, Finland, Outotec provides processing technology and services to the mining and metallurgical industries.

The company had sales of roughly US$1.06 billion in 2006, and has about 1,800 employees.

Wardrop to help design, build Tulsequah Chief

Redcorp Ventures (RDV-T, RDFVF-O) and its subsidiary, Redfern Resources, has selected Wardrop Engineering to design and build the necessary facilities to bring B.C.’s Tulsequah Chief polymetallic project into production.

Wardrop also prepared the project’s feasibility study, which was wrapped up in February. Engineering will be completed with most of the same staff that worked on the feasibility.

The work will be done in Wardrop’s Vancouver and Saskatoon, Sask., offices under the direction of project manager Jeremy Breker.

Some subcontractors will be used throughout design and construction and construction management will be handled by Vancouver-based Merit Consultants International, which has managed a number of previous mining construction projects in B.C., China, Turkey and the U.S. Joe Rokosh was recently named Merit’s project manager for Tulsequah Chief.

The teams from both companies will design a construction schedule, assemble tender packages for other key contracts, begin detailed design engineering and establish some infrastructure on-site.

Redcorp says it will hire additional management personnel to provide further direction to its contractors and that some announcements should be made soon.

Tulsequah Chief hosts measured and indicated resources totalling 5.38 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper, 1.32% lead, 6.73% zinc, 2.73 grams gold and 100.8 grams silver per tonne. A further 1.54 million tonnes of 1.13% copper, 1.07% lead, 5.44% zinc, 2.23 grams gold and 85.1 grams silver are classified as inferred.

Redcorp is also exploring the Lagoa Salgada project in Portugal.

Wardrop has its headquarters in Winnipeg, Man., and provides engineering and project management services to the mining, oil and gas, energy and forestry sectors.

ALS eyes lab in Terrace

ALS Chemex will expand its presence in Western Canada with a new laboratory in Terrace, B.C.

The new location will support ALS’s main analytical laboratory in Vancouver.

The Terrace facility is part of ALS’s overall strategy to bring its services to busy mining regions and two of the most bustling are northern British Columbia and the Yukon.

ALS believes that Terrace is large enough to provide sufficient staff, but more importantly, it is located en route from Whitehorse, Yukon. A number of mining and exploration companies are working in the Yukon and many routinely ship samples through Whitehorse to Vancouver for analysis. ALS hopes that a Terrace facility will provide these companies with another option. It will also lighten the workload for the Vancouver lab.

The Terrace lab will serve as a sample reception and preparation site that is equipped for contamination control and environmental monitoring. The facility is also connected to ALS’ online Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), known as Webtrieve. The system allows clients real-time access to results, audit trails, quality-control data, and other information pertaining to their samples’ analysis.

ALS Chemex is the Vancouver-based mineral division of Australia’s ALS Laboratory Group, a series of diversified international analytical labs that provide a range of services.

Farallon goes shopping for Campo Morado

Farallon Resources (FAN-T, FRLLF-O) recently went on a $10-million shopping spree at three separate suppliers: Montreal-based Farnell-Thompson Applied Technologies and Dorr-Oliver Eimco, and Finland’s Metso Minerals.

Farallon now has orders for grinding mills, flotation cells, flotation blowers, concentrate thickeners and concentrate filters required for the 1,500-tonne-per-day mill at the company’s Campo Morado zinc project in Guerrero state, Mexico.

The mill is designed to also produce copper, gold, silver and lead as byproducts.

Farallon still has another $12 million to spend on processing equipment needed for the mill.

Campo Morado consists of a series of massive sulphide deposits. A late 2005 resource estimate on the Reforma, Naranjo, El Rey and El Largo deposits reviewed an indicated resource of 11.2 million tonnes grading 4.66% zinc, 0.67% copper, 1.44% lead, 2.67 grams gold per tonne and 166 grams silver, plus an additional 1.5 million inferred tonnes at 3.65% zinc, 0.88% copper, 0.79% lead, 1.98 grams gold and 119 grams silver. A US$90 gross metal value (GMV) per tonne cutoff was used in the estimates.

Detailed mill and process plant engineering at the Mexican project is being carried out by Tucson, Ariz.-based M3 Engineering & Technology. Farallon says work remains on schedule.

The company recently completed a debt financing with U.K.-based NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd., which provided a bridge loan to help finance the fixed assets.

“The latest purchase orders now completes the procurement of all the major items of process equipment required for the mill at G-9,” says Dick Whittington, CEO of Farallon.