Stealth Grey Fox growth potentialIf Grey Fox is economic, there will probably be a joint partnership with SAS. News due right after Taylor goes online. Even better, state of the art new website should be up in September.
https://www.timminspress.com/2015/08/27/56-laid-off-as-primeros-open-pit-mined-out
BLACK RIVER-MATHESON - The gold mining industry in Northeastern Ontario took another hit this week. Primero Mining Corporation announced Thursday that 56 workers have been laid off as a result of the closure of the open pit operation at the Black Fox mine, located about 10 kilometres east of Matheson. It was formerly the Brigus Gold property. Primeros Black Fox underground mine continues to operate, despite the layoffs in the pit, said mine general manager Dan Gagnon at a news conference in Timmins Thursday morning. Gagnon, a veteran in mine management, was appointed as the new boss at Primero just three months ago. Gagnon made it clear the underground operation at Black Fox is continuing and provides jobs for roughly 310 employees. It was this time last week that IAMGOLD revealed that 33 employees were to be laid off from the Ct Lake gold project, located southwest of Gogama. IAMGOLD said the job cuts were a direct result of the lower-than-expected price of gold. Gagnon said Thursday the layoff at Black Fox and the shutdown of the pit had more to do with the fact that the pit has been mined out, than with the fact the price of gold is hovering around U.S. $1,120 an ounce. The pit started in 2010 and we are basically at the bottom of the existing mineralization so there is really no chance of that pit re-igniting, but we have a lot of confidence in the Grey Fox project, he said. Unfortunately this week, as a result of resources being depleted in our Black Fox open pit mine, and its subsequent closure, we announced an employee reduction at Black Fox over the last two days. A total of 56 employees were laid off. This included mostly open pit operators and associated services like geology, engineering and finance. He said the companys human resource department is working with the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to help the laid-off workers in the preparation of resums and exploring other career options. In the meantime, Gagnon said Primero is still bullish for its prospects in the Matheson area. The company remains quite confident for the long term future of the Black Fox Mine. Our objective remains to ensure the Black Fox is capable of funding its financial requirements to produce and grow and contribute to Primeros success, he said. Gagnon added that his main focus now will be continued exploration, finding more ore zones, optimizing underground operations and increasing the milling from roughly 600 tonnes per day up to 1,000 tonnes per day. This includes more definition drilling to scope out of the full size of the mine for long term planning. He said the company has been successful in identifying high-grade gold zones to a depth of 800 metres. Currently, the company is mining at a depth of 560 metres. Gagnon said the company spent $50-million at the mine in 2014 for capital expenditures, and plans to spend an additional $46-million in 2015. Gagnon said his plan is that the mine will continue to develop and continue to go deeper to get a better idea of the future of the entire operation. I think we are a typical gold mine. We have a few years of reserves. We make sure we do enough diamond drilling to replenish what we mine every year. We also have an interesting project called the Grey Fox project, Gagnon revealed. It is located roughly four kilometres away from the Black Fox open pit and is the subject of a scoping study to determine the full value of the property. This study is scheduled to the completed by the end of the year. By that time we will know what the value of this property is and what it would add to our portfolio. We anticipate to be building this pit but the economics will drive our decision in the near future. He said the company is now in the environmental permitting process for Grey Fox and Gagnon said he anticipates positive news and being able to make that decision early in the New Year. So does that mean that Grey Fox will result in more jobs? There is a lot of hope that will turn into a project, said Gagnon. Most of our employees come from the Iroquois Falls, Cochrane and Matheson areas and from my experience over the last couple of days, they would be more than pleased to come back and work with Primero Gold. He said the company has made a serious investment in the region and wants to continue mining in the region. Gagnon said there is no preference of one mine over the other right now. He said Black Fox and Grey Fox are both important. Gagnon said what is best for the company is to have both ore bodies contributing to the milling process. We have a mill that can run at 2,500 tonnes per day. We have a stockpile that will last us about 18 months, so we would like to get another deposit going before we deplete that stockpile, he said. Gagnon could not commit to it, but said he would be pleased to be able to hire more people. I am quite hopeful. The next pit would likely be about the size of this pit, so youre probably looking at the potential and again no commitment but the potential of employment in the range of 50 to 90 people, said Gagnon.