Timmins mining camp a "fortress".The Timmins-Porcupine belt is predicted to be one of the most "underexplored," untapped mining camps in the world, but St. Andrew Goldfields n. 1. A small slender woolly annual (Lasthenia chrysostoma) with very narrow opposite leaves and branches bearing solitary golden-yellow flower heads; it grows from Southwestern Oregon to Baja California and Arizona; - it is often cultivated. is about to change that with an aggressive plan to bring new gold mines to the region. With a three-dimensional geological database at his disposal and a consolidated land position of 176,080 acres in the Timmins camp, St. Andrew Goldfields' president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Glenn Laing believes the gold mining and exploration company is sitting on a "fortress." "Once we got to the point where we felt gold prices had risen (high enough), it made good sense for us to start a gold mine in Timmins," Laing says. "The Porcupine porcupine, in zoology porcupine, member of either of two rodent families, characterized by having some of its hairs modified as bristles, spines, or quills. belt and the Timmins mining camp we feel is probably the most underexplored mining camp in the world." St. Andrew is embarking on the first new major mining development in Timmins in over a decade. The company was lured into the Timmins area in 2001 on the heels of the successful Goldcorp Challenge, launched by Goldcorp president Rob McEwen Rob McEwen is Chairman and CEO of US Gold Corporation and Lexam Explorations and was the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Goldcorp, which is the world’s lowest cost million ounce gold producer. . Australian-based science and technology company Fractal Graphics, using its high-tech three-dimensional mapping system, won the Goldcorp Challenge. St. Andrew then acquired a 41.7 per-cent ownership of Fractal in 2002. The name has since changed to Geoinformatics Exploration Ltd. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Every thing that was started in Timmins came out of the Goldcorp Challenge," says Laing. "That's what put Fractal Graphics on the international map. We liked what Fractal did, and we started working with them. We liked it so much, we bought the company." Their technology allows large-scale mineral and geological data to be defined in a three-dimensional modeling system. St. Andrew Goldfields holds a geological database that spans from the Quebec border to down-town Timmins. Based on conclusions drawn from the data, and given the depressed state of gold prices in 2001-2002, St. Andrew embarked on a land-claiming spree in the Timmins belt. "A normal geologist or exploration company would only look at its claims and work those claims to death," Laing says. "We took sort of a holistic view for the big picture. So all the land we picked up, and we are the biggest landholder in Timmins, was all selected based on more prospectivity, rather than less prospectivity, so we had the choice, and that was part of our strategy. We were picking up properties when nobody cared. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "That has all changed now. The price of gold has changed, and it's now harder to acquire land. We have all of that and it's a question of playing it out." The company's production assets in Timmins, dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. the Stock Gold Complex, located about 50 kilometres east of Timmins, include the Stock Gold mill and tailings Tailings (also known as tailings pile, tails, leach residue, or slickens[1]) are the materials left over[2] after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the worthless fraction of an ore. , the Taylor property and the Clavos property. Development of the Clavos mine commenced in November 2003, with Dumas Contracting being awarded a $9.7-million contract to develop a decline ramp, and to begin underground development and drilling. St. Andrew is targeting a 100-metre-below-surface-level production startup for July of this year. Clavos mine is projected to create 100 new jobs in Timmins, says Laing. The Clavos property has an inferred mineral resource of 452,000 tonnes of ore, at 9.0 grams per tonne. The company intends to bring the dormant Latent; inactive; silent. That which is dormant is not used, asserted, or enforced. A dormant partner is a member of a partnership who has a financial interest yet is silent, in that he or she takes no control over the business. Stock mine into production in the fourth quarter of 2004. The existing infrastructure at Stock mine includes a 900-foot shaft and underground workings. A prefeasibility study conducted in October 2003 pegged the capital cost of underground development and drilling at $3 million, and stope stope n. An excavation in the form of steps made by the mining of ore from steeply inclined or vertical veins. tr.v. stoped, stop·ing, stopes To remove (ore) from or mine by means of a stope. development and equipment at $2.7 million. Dewatering Dewatering (dē′wöd·ər·iŋ) is the removal of water from solid material or soil by wet classification, centrifugation, filtration, or similar solid-liquid separation processes. of the mine and rehabilitation rehabilitation: see physical therapy. of underground workings began in January, with underground development and drilling commencing in May. Stock mine produced 131,000 ounces of gold between 1988 and 2000, with an average resource of 0.16 ounces per ton. The strategy is to "put the mine back into production and get the cash flow and use the cash flow to explore our ground," says Laing. St. Andrew is targeting to increase production capacity at Stock mine to 2,300 tonnes per day at a cost of $7 million to accommodate the Taylor property expansion. The Taylor property has an estimated mineral resource of 2,716,000 tonnes of ore graded Ore grade is a measure that describes the concentration of a valuable natural material (such as metals or minerals) in its surrounding ore. Ore grade is used to assess the economic feasibility of a mining operation: the cost of extracting a natural material from its ore is directly at 0.22 ounces of gold per tonne. The property has an existing 565-foot vertical shaft. Plans are underway to develop a decline ramp and pursue underground development and drilling at a cost of $14.7 million, followed by stope development at a cost of $24 million. Production at Taylor mine is forecasted to begin in early 2006. The company estimates the Stock Gold Complex will be producting 184,000 ounces of gold per year by 2006, at an estimated cost of $230 (US) per ounce. www.standrewgoldfields.com By SARI Sari (särē`), city (1991 pop. 167,602), capital of Mazandaran prov., N Iran, near the Caspian Sea. It is the trade center for a farm region where citrus fruit, cotton, rice, and sugarcane are grown. HUHTALA Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
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