alaska journalWeb posted
InternationalTower Hill Mines is starting to put together its team to managedevelopment of the company's Livengood gold project north of Fairbanks,beginning with recruitment of a veteran Alaska mine development manager,Karl Hanneman, to be project manager.
Hanneman, formerly withTeck Alaska, joined ITH June 1.
The company will soon beopening an office in Fairbanks, too.
Hanneman previously manageddevelopment of the Pogo gold mine, a joint venture between Teck andSumimoto Heavy Metals. Pogo began production in 2006 and Sumimoto hassince purchased Teck's share of the mine.
The Livengood project hasbeen explored since 2007, when the deposit was discovered. Since thendrilling and other exploration has resulted in establishment of a 12.3million ounce gold resource base, assuming a 0.5 gram/ton grade cutoff,for the project as of March 2010. Exploration drilling is still underwayand additional resources are expected to be announced this summer andagain later in the year.
Hanneman said the companyhas a preliminary economic assessment now underway that will be completeby mid-summer and is now planning the makeup of its team of contractorsand employees who will do the pre-feasibility and environmentalbaseline study for a mine, which is expected to be a surface minesimilar to the Fort Knox gold mine also near Fairbanks.
"I'm excited about theproject. This is an opportunity to really be creative in designing amine that reflects the right balance on environmental stewardship andgood engineering principles," Hanneman said.
A mine at Livengood couldinvolve either a heap leach or conventional mill technology forprocessing gold ore, or both. Both procedures are now used at Fort Knox.
A heap leach involves thecontrolled released of a chemical solution over a pad or stockpiled oreto recover gold, while the mill would involve crushing and grinding theore to develop a concentrate from which gold can be extracted.
The pre-feasibility studywould determine which approach is best for Livengood.
Hanneman's team will alsoassess two other important issues, how to provide energy to a mine inthe most economical way, and how to provide facilities for employees.
Workers at Fort Knoxcommute daily from homes in Fairbanks, but Livegood may be too far forthat.
"Livengood is an hour andhalf drive north of Fairbanks on the Elliot Highway, and while people docommutes like that in Nevada, winter road conditions are a bit moresevere in Alaska. It's something we'll be giving a lot of thought to,"Hanneman said.
Energy could be eitheron-site diesel generation or power provided from the Golden ValleyElectric Assoc. grid, although a long-distance transmission line wouldbe needed.
GVEA now provides power forboth the Pogo and Fort Knox mines.
Hanneman was born andraised in Fairbanks and is a 1979 University of Alaska Fairbanksgraduate with a degree in mining engineering. When he graduated therewere no large producing mines in the state except for the Usibelli coalmine at Healy, so Hanneman went to work in mineral exploration, whichwas a hot field then, as it is today.
Since the Alaska's miningindustry has grown with the start of production of the Red Dog andGreens Creeks mines, near Kotzebue and Juneau respectively, in 1989; thestart of Fort Knox in 1996 and Pogo, the project Hanneman helpeddirect, in 2006.
In July the list ofproducing mines will be joined by another gold mine, Kensington, nearJuneau.
https://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/061110/loc_ith.shtml