Veteran miners adopt an old-school approach on Bonaparte Plateau
Veteran miners adopt an old-school approach on Bonaparte Plateau
Frompage A1 Veteran hard-rock miner Harvey Callow grabs a hose on therock-strewn floor, points it to the wall and starts to rinse off a lightcovering of dirt. “This is the juicy stuff,” he exclaims, while thetorrent of water and his headlamp exposes high-grade gold-bearing oresuspended in a streak of white quartz. Callow and fellow miner DonFugere are working 30 metres underground, down a mining shaft known as adecline in the industry.
KEITH ANDERSON/THE DAILY NEWS HarveyCallow works in the shaft-decline ramp, where Encore RenaissanceResources Corp. is exploring for a gold deposit.
Tunneling belowthe Earth’s surface to explore for minerals typically happens aftertens of millions of dollars are spent on exploration and feasibilitystudies.
That’s the way it occurred at New Afton, on Kamloops’ western boundary.
ButEncore Renaissance Resources Corp. is doing it differently by makingthe project more economic as it explores for gold and proves up aresource promoters believe is much larger.
“We’re doing it likethey used to do it 50 years ago,” said Roger McClay, president of BCT, acompany that sold a stake in the Bonaparte mine to Encore Renaissance(TSX: EZ) last year in order to raise needed financing. BCT is a partnerand contractor running the mining operation. Because it is doingexploration and mining in-house, McClay said investors are saving abouthalf on costs.
The project is considered an exploration forminerals, but BCT has already profited by digging trenches for showingsnear the surface. In late summer it trucked tonnes of ore, considered abulk sample, to a refinery in Washington State to help finance furtherexploration.
The property has been explored since the 1970s, withabout 200 diamond drill holes. Fifteen years ago, McClay’s company bulksampled from a small open pit, sending ore to a smelter in Trail, whengold was little more than one-third of today’s value.
Today theoperation is small, employing about 10 workers on two shifts that runseven days a week. The work involves blasting the tunnel, removing oreand waste rock and drilling and screening the walls to ensure safety.
“Thecost of putting an Afton (mine) into production in time is seven to 10years,” McClay said. “What we’re doing and achieving can be done on thego. It’s easler to accomplish and justify.”
Bruce Madu, regionalgeologist for the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said the project isunusual and agreed it is more typical of the way exploration was done inthe past — without tens of millions spent on drilling and feasibilitystudies first.
“It is reminiscent of the old days, in that youdon’t have a highly defined deposit. You’d quite literally drift alongand chase the veins.”
But Madu also said B.C.’s mining legacy ishaunted by worker deaths and environmental damage — something theprovince is keen to prevent.
“In that sense it’s old fashioned, but we’re in a modern world.”
The ministry sends mining inspectors to the site regularly and also ensures environmental standards are being met.
The work is being done on a 300-metre by 300-metre “brown zone” that can be disturbed under the terms of the permit.
There is also logging by an unrelated firm nearby.
The publicly traded company owns thousands of hectares of exploration rights surrounding it.
McClaygoes back and forth between Kamloops and his home in Tsawwassenfrequently to monitor the project’s progress – a welcome commute in alifetime spent exploring on other continents. The miners, too, are happyto be working in their home province.
The company has been able to find most suppliers and workers in the city, including its trucking contract and assaying.
McClaysaid the proximity of the city to the operation, about 45 minutes fromWestsyde, makes miners — many used to working in the NorthwestTerritories or overseas — happier and reduces costs because it is easierto replace parts or bring in equipment by road from a major centre.
The publicly traded firm recently completed more financing. It plans to continue its tunneling through the year.