Wheaton River plans summer start for Golden Bear

Toronto-based Wheaton River Minerals (WRM-T) will commence mining this summer at the Golden Bear heap-leach project in northwestern British Columbia.

The junior, which holds an 82% interest in mine-owner North American Metals, recently announced that an US$11-million project financing had been arranged by BZW Mining & Metals, a division of Barclays Bank of London.

Wheaton River’s chairman, Ian McDonald, says the deal is now subject only to documentation, which is almost complete.

Next, the company will select an open-pit mining contractor and arrange for the crew to be mobilized to the site by April.

Starting in June, 350,000 tonnes of material grading 3.03 grams gold per tonne will be loaded on to a previously constructed heap-leach pad.

Subsequent leaching will make use of a second, larger pad, to be constructed this summer.

By the end of the year, the mine is expected to have produced 25,000 oz.

gold, with annual output steadily increasing to a peak of 51,000 oz. by 2000.

At these production rates, the mine will produce roughly 214,000 oz. gold over its 6-year life span.

At last report, minable reserves stood at 1.5 million tonnes grading 5.13 grams gold. These are contained in the Kodiak A, Ursa and Kodiak B deposits, which individually host 760,000 tonnes grading 3.3 grams gold, 520,000 tonnes grading 6.9 grams gold and 184,000 tonnes grading 8.7 grams gold, respectively. From the Kodiak, a stockpile of 65,000 tonnes grading 2.5 grams gold has been accumulated. Both the Kodiak A and Ursa deposits will be mined by open-pit methods at stripping ratios of 1-to-1 and 7-to-1, respectively.

Kodiak B will be mined by underground, bulk-mining methods.

In addition to the three deposits, the Golden Bear project contains the Grizzly and Kodiak C deposits, as well as a low-grade stockpile on surface.

The stockpile contains reserves of 2.5 million tonnes grading 1.3 grams gold, while the deposits host a reserve of 152,945 tonnes grading 20.5 grams gold and a resource of 276,000 tonnes grading 7.8 grams gold, respectively. These millfeed sources would provide an additional 277,000 oz. if brought into production.