Why have mining plans changed Originally it was determined that it was preferable to prioritize and focus on the construction of the heap leach facility to commence gold processing ahead of re-starting the mill.
Once the heap leach operation is constructed, ponds and pads loaded and operating, only then would mill start-up be addressed.
At that time...2015....the geological team had established that both high grade and low grade zones occur within the then identified mineralized zones in the ANA pit .
Since then , considerable additional drilling has been done and a high grade tailings dump has been located at Tumblegum .Other tailings dumps can be found in the Lewis and Rrward pits.
The original plan considered It necessary to mine selectively by identifying high grade blocks, mining them and placing the material on the ROM near the crushing circuit for future mill feed for the next Phase.
At the same time, mining low grade for crushing, agglomeration and stacking on the heap leach pad was to be carried out to minimize double handling.
It was felt that this the best way to maximize recovery of gold without sacrificing high grade mineralized material .
Gold prices were lower then than now, so high grade was determined to be above 3 grams....for the mill...and low grade below 3 gms for heap leach.
Heap leach is cheap and much lower cost once the metallurgy is known and suitable .
Today there are mines making profit at heap leaching at grades as low as 0.2 gms per ton .
So, the environment for heap leaching has improved.
Yet, it's now determined that heap leaching won't proceed.
Instead, we wait for two years for all of the drilling to be completed and sufficient for a PFS.
That gets us to late 2023 even with a competent management team.
And, we certainly don't have anything close to a competent management team.
But, if the objective is to extend employment without undue work stress, then obviously such a deferral describes current management perfectly.
Stage 2 is now officially underway.