By NICK STEWART
Towering over South Porcupine, the McIntyre Mine headframe is one of the most dominant symbols of the Timmins mining camp, a wooden monument standing guard over a maze of dormant underground mine workings.
However, an exploration project underway may one day reawaken the sleeping giant.
“We’ve been looking at this particular part of the McIntyre mine for a number of years, as we completed some drilling back in 2002 or 2003, and this is a follow-up on that program,” Dave Bucar, project manager for Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines, says.
“It hasn’t been a high priority, what with other projects on the go, but this is the year where we’re finally going to get back and take another look to determine the viability of some underground mining at that site.”
The mine has a long history, having produced 11 million ounces of gold from 1903 until its 1988 shutdown.
Since then, the vaunted McIntyre headframe, which looms over Pearl Lake has stood as a reminder of the area’s long gold mining heritage. This site, now largely referred to as “the Mac," will see nearly 7,000 metres worth of drilling through 2008 to determine the exact structure of the targets and how much gold might still be available.
However, the new targets are situated far enough from the existing mine workings that this work must be done from surface. This means the drilling must be performed not only on the shoreline of Pearl Lake, located north of Schumacher, but also from its frozen surface.
Unseasonably warm weather has reduced the thickness of the lake’s surface. Ice must reach at least 30 inches to support the drill rig’s weight and the operating team.
Workers have had to look to mechanical means to build up the ice. Pumps are being used to draw water from the depths of the lake onto surface to freeze.
Drilling began in mid-January and is expected to carry through to early April, or until the spring weather melts the ice to a point where maintaining drill rigs and crews would be unsafe.
Operated largely by local contractor Bradley Brothers, these drills will seek to reach targets at a relatively shallow depth of 200 to 300 metres. If results are positive, some follow-up drilling may be pursued later to determine the economic viability of continued exploration.
Bucar says the company is looking at a number of targets, including the McIntyre, to develop a new underground mining operation. The goal, he says, is to find new feed to maintain production at the company’s Dome mill.
Work is also ongoing at Goldcorp’s Hollinger property, where a pre-feasibility study is being conducted to determine the viability of returning that site to production again as well.
External work from engineering and environmental studies, are being compiled into a mining model to identify the economic viability of the project. There are local rumours that the project may encompass the entire Schumacher area.
However, Bucar says the project is in too early a stage to determine exactly where it will be developed, or even which methods would be used.
Having produced 19 million ounces of gold from 1910 to 1968, the Hollinger site was identified as having 2.1 million ounces in the indicated category of a 2006 mineral resource estimate. Nearly 2.2 million ounces were identified in the inferred category.
Nearly 70,000 metres of drilling took place on the former mine workings through 2007, to identify new resource estimates.
www.goldcorp.com
