Greenstone Gold Mines is working to finalize its environmental assessment (EA) for the Geraldton-area Hardrock property it’s aiming to develop into an open-pit gold mine.
The company is a 50/50 partnership between Premier Gold Mines Ltd. and Centerra Gold Inc. for the joint ownership and development of the Hardrock, Brookbank and Viper properties.
On Feb. 1, Greenstone Gold submitted its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and draft environmental assessment (DEA) for the Hardrock property to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) for review before final submission.
The Hardrock property is located at the former MacLeod-Mosher complex, which was actively mined from the 1930s to the 1970s.
The Greenstone plan calls for the mine to be built over two years, with construction estimated to begin in early 2017 and production starting in late 2018. Operations will include a main open pit and a satellite pit, along with ore-processing facilities.
The proposed mine will produce 10,000 tonnes per day during the first two years of operation and 18,000 tonnes per day in subsequent years. The mine is expected to have a lifespan of 15 years.
At peak construction, the operation will employ 500; once in operation, the mine will employ 450 people per year.
According to the draft DEIS and EA, the company will spend five years actively closing and reclaiming the site after mining is complete.
During mine operation, tailings will be pumped to the tailings management facility, located 4 kilometres from the processing plant, and water will be reclaimed back to the mill. The tailings facility will have a 125-metre setback from Kenogamisis Lake with a perimeter road around the facility. The facility will be revegetated progressively, starting with the north cell.
Greenstone Gold will create a new diversion channel from Goldfield Creek to flow around the tailings management facility to the southwest arm tributary, which will maintain the creek’s flow. It is also expected to “create new fish habitat through natural channel design approach and offline ponds.”
The mine plan calls for the tailings facility to operate as a zero-discharge facility with “negligible freshwater demand from Kenogamisis Lake.” Operations will include both effluent and sewage treatment plants.
As part of remediation, roughly 25 per cent of the historical tailings from the MacLeod complex will be removed, along with 80 per cent of the historical Hardrock tailings.
In 2016, the company plans to review historical exploration data, and complete till sampling, mapping, prospecting and geophysical surveying throughout its claim blocks this year to create a comprehensive geological model of the claim blocks.
