Timmins Report Anyox mills Toronto sewage

The latest in heap leaching technology will be the topic of discussion at a seminar to be held in Timmins May 24-26.

The seminar, called Heap Leaching in the Canadian Environment, is being sponsored by the Sudbury- based Resource Technology Centre.

Paul Tosolini, a spokesman for the centre, says the seminar will likely attract 100 of the most important and high-profile mining people in Canada to Timmins.

The idea of heap leaching is not new to the Timmins area. Giant Yellowknife Mines (TSE) and its predecessor, Pamour Inc. (TSE), have been leaching for nearly three years at the No 1 mine site.

What started out as a 10,000-ton pilot project grew to 120,000 tons last year and Giant Yellowknife expects to heap leach 300,000 tons of low grade ore in 1988.

“Timmins was chosen as the site of the seminar because of its long association with gold mining,” said Tosolini. “I feel the event will be very significant for the Timmins area.”

Addressing the delegates on May 23 will be John Dodds, president of the Resource Technology Centre, and the centre’s vice-president, John Wilson. Technical papers will be presented throughout the 3-day seminar by important Canadian mining figures.

Heap leaching has long been an accepted way to extract gold from low grade ore in the United States, but Canadian climatic conditions have often precluded using that method of gold extraction north of the border.

Giant Yellowknife, however, has been heap leaching throughout the winter with no apparent problems. The only other heap leaching program in Canada is at Hope Brook (TSE) in Newfoundland.

Committees are being formed in mining communities across the country in an attempt to convince Finance Minister Michael Wilson to leave as is the tax deductions associated with flow-through shares.

In Timmins, a Save Flow-Through Committee has issued a survey of 1,600 Timmins-area businesses, asking what flow-throughs have meant to the city. But Jim Richard, president of Overburden Exploration Services and president of the committee, is disappointed with the number of surveys that were returned.

In fact, only 124 of the 1,600 surveys found their way back to the committee — less than an 8% return. Still, the surveys that were returned contained strong evidence that the loss of the Mining Exploration Depletion Allowance would result in a great loss of jobs in Timmins.

Richard said the survey results showed that from 254 to 387 jobs would be lost in Timmins during 1988, most of them in the service sector, which he predicted would lose from 108 to 166 jobs. Relative job losses would be greatest in the mining exploration sector, with staff reductions of from 50% to 70%, representing up to 109 lost jobs.

There is no danger to millworkers at the Diepdaume mine in Timmins from minute levels of dioxin found in Toronto’s sewage which is being put through the mill, according to Pat Sheridan, president of Anyox Metals Inc. (ASE), which operates the former gold producer. He said “There’s absolutely no harm. If there was, everybody in Toronto would be dead.”

He said the 0.19 parts per billion of 2,3,7,8 TCDD found in incinerator ash derived from Toronto sewage is too small to be harmful, and that workers in Timmins can safely handle chemicals that are far more dangerous. Diepdaume is storing 15,000 tons of the ash that came from Metro Toronto’s sewage sludge incinerator at Ashbridges Bay. The ash is to be milled at the Diepdaume to extract the gold it contains, which can be as high as 0.15 oz per ton, plus 8 oz of silver per ton, because firms which use gold and silver in their manufacturing processes discharge effluent in the Ashbridges Bay treatment plant. The ash is also excellent for fertilizing trees and for revegetation of tailings areas.