Details of Primero's Plans in Matheson - Black Fox + FroomePrimero Mining Corporation is hard at work exploring its options when it comes to finding new gold deposits that will expand the life of their Black Fox Mine located outside of Timmins.
This year, the company will be pumping millions of dollars into surface and underground exploratory drilling, and has begun the permitting and First Nations consultation process on a new open pit mine called the “Froome Zone” which could double amount of ore the company extracts every day.
At the same time, another promising new project dubbed “the Grey Fox Mine” has been shelved for the foreseeable future.
“There is a lot of potential to find a lot more gold in that area,” said Dan Gagnon, general manager of the Black Fox Mine. “We are a producer of 60,000 to 70,000 ounces (of gold) per year for the next couple years, and we have projects to bring us up to 100,000 ounces.”
Gagnon spoke to a gathering of local business people at luncheon organized by the Timmins Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday afternoon, where he gave an outline of the Primero's plans for the future. His company may be smaller than other mining corporations in Timmins such as Goldcorp, but they are thinking big when it comes to new projects.
The most important of these new projects is the Froome Zone, which is a gold deposit located about 800 metres away from the Black Fox Mine. The plan for that deposit is to establish a pit mine that will operate for about six months before they begin following the vein underground for few years.
Primero has begun the extensive permitting process for the mine, which involves performing studies about the mine's potential impact on the environment, from the water to the wildlife. It will be quite some time before that work will be finished.
“The reality of it is that it will be 12 to 18 months to get the permit to start building the mine. That will include completing our First Nation consultation,” said Gagnon.
Primero is currently in talks with the Wahgoshig First Nation as their primary Indigenous partner for the project, but are also consulting the Matachewan First Nation and the Metis of Ontario.
If all goes well, target date for having the Froome pit mine ready for operation is the third-quarter of 2018.
Aside from the Froome Zone, Primero is also excited about another gold deposit they have been exploring below the 520 metre level of the Black Fox Mine. The vein in question, called “the Deep Central Zone,” is high-yield and appears to be widening the further it goes down.
At the moment Primero is mining the Deep Central Zone at the 720 metre level of Black Fox, and the company will be conducting drilling this year down to 1,100 metres to see if the vein continues to grow.
“It seems to range between 10 to 20 metres wide, with a grade of six grams per tone plus,” confirmed Gagnon. “This year we're going to target drill down to 1,100.”
The Grey Fox Mine project, which is focused on another deposit located roughly three kilometres from Black Fox has been put on hold in favour of focusing on the closer Froome Zone. Gagnon said he isn't sure when the company will begin looking at the project again, but said that it is still part of Primero's long-term plans.
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