No mention of snowfield in QPCThey did mention working on the high grade open pit deposits proximate to the VOK mill. Now why would they do that. According to the what was 2012 technical report the high grade deposits reserves were in the measured and indicated categories.
So are they looking to upgrade some of the higher grade deposits proximate to the VOK mill up to proven and probable status. Now why would they do that.
There are 9 million ozs of 4.48 grams a tonne in these higher grade open pit deposits. Need i remind you that the silver credit is not far from an oz per tonne.. 5 grams per tonne is the cutoff grade for the underground portion of the VOK mine itself.
I understand the strip ratio is above average for these higher grade deposits. Nevertheless the cost of open pit mining is considerably less than the cost of underground mining. It is not unreasonable to expect that pretium could transition over to mining the higher grade open pit material through the VOK mill at some time in the future. Moreover if the VOK mill was expanded to a 10,000 tonne a day operation the economics of mining the satellite high grade open pits becomes even more compelling.
I'm babbling a bit but as i have said before the 9 million ozs of high grade open pit material in the vicinity of the VOK mine is the obvious way for the company to increase its output grow organically... That may be why they left snowfield on the backburner in their commentary at the QPC...
https://s23.q4cdn.com/277467366/files/doc_downloads/technical_reports/Brucejack-Interim-Resource-Estimate-43-101-Sept-2012.pdf