Treminco opens Ptarmigan mine at Yellowknife, N.W.T.

According to Roland Trenaman, president, plant capacity is about 250 tons per day but it’s currently operating well below that because of inadequate power supply. The company hopes to tie into a local power grid which would end the shortage and be cheaper than diesel generation.

“We are a little restricted at the moment but there is no question the plant is capable of giving us 6,000 tons per month,” Trenaman told The Northern Miner. He confirmed that recoveries to date look good with 50% of the gold coming from table jigs and the rest from flotation, “without any really deleterious components.”

To keep costs down, the company purchased used equipment but Trenaman cautioned that “you can’t put the power to it the way you can with new equipment.” So they are being very careful. The crusher, mill, surface facilities and tailings pond were put in for about $1.7 million, a remarkably low price and a testament to the company’s expertise in mine development. Trenaman, an alumnus of Cominco, was at one time manager of Cominco’s Sullivan mine.

Head grades are expected to range from 0.35 to 0.4 oz gold which should yield about 25,000 of gold on an annual basis. Cominco (the previous operator) left a fair amount of broken ore in old stopes which will take some of the pressure off Treminco in the early stages of production. “We will have about 15,000 tons of what we would describe as `immediately available tonnage’ for production,” he said.

Detailed geological work is under way which will assist the company in finding additional ore on the property. “We have found on the west end, where Cominco carried no reserves, a very nice block of about 12,000-15,000 tons above the 300 level,” he noted.

“We are expanding the finding of additional ore, but we would like to find it faster of course,” he said. Most of the development work so far has involved raising to develop ore blocks. But they have started drifting to the east on the 300 level and on the 400 as well.

Trenaman confirmed that Treminco is working on an acquisition in British Columbia and forming “a joint venture relationship with one of the majors.”

]]>