More eyes than ever are turning to Lake Shore Gold Corp. and Apollo Gold Corp. as they prepare to become the region's newest producers.
This proved literally true as Lake Shore president Anthony Makuch addressed a crowd of more than 300 at the Big Event Mining Show's gala dinner, held at the MacIntyre Arena on May 27.
"We're building a mid-tier gold company and we're proud of a lot of the work we've done," said Makuch, himself the son of a gold miner.
"We've got a big year ahead of us and we've seen a lot of progress. The next years are looking even more exciting, so stay tuned."
What started with a team of eight a few scant years ago has since exploded into a staff of more than 250 people, a number which is expected to rise even further as Lake Shore pursues plans to move beyond its flagship project, the Timmins Mine.
Formerly known as the Timmins West project, the Timmins Mine is located just 18 kilometres west of the city. Local contractor Dumas Mining has been sinking the shaft since last August, having reached the 650 Level as of mid-May. From there, ore can be accessed for bulk sampling, which will begin by the third quarter of 2009.
With an 830,000-ounce probable reserve, the Timmins Mine will have an 11-year life, producing 30,000-ounces of gold this year alone through the processing of development ore at the Bell Creek Mill 40 kilometres away.
The Bell Creek project represents a shining star of its own, with advanced exploration continuing at the site in the second half of 2009, including dewatering and rehabilitation of the former mine workings.
A ramp will be driven through to its nearby Schumacher and Vogel properties together forming the Bell Creek Complex to allow for development work and bulk sampling in 2010, with commercial production anticipated for 2011.
This growth will place additional demands on the mill, which was refurbished December 2008 to a capacity of 800-tonnes-per day. Plans are already in place to expand it further to 1,500-tonnes-per day by the end of 2009, and eventually to 2,000 or 3,000-tonnes-per day as the company's projects come to fruition.
Such expansion will prove necessary as the company's production outlook for the near future continues to grow, said Makuch.
Full commercial production of the Timmins Mine in 2010 will allow for 100,000 ounces, a number that will jump to 200,000 ounces a year and beyond as Lake Shore brings Bell Creek online and begins looking at its other properties.
The company spent $13 million on the Timmins Mine project in the first quarter of 2009, with total project spending through the year is being forecast at $89 million. Exploration expenditures are anticipated to reach $14 million.
Apollo Gold is also seeing dollar signs, with early June marking the official start of commercial production of its Black Fox open pit mine, 64 kilometres east of Timmins.
Despite some start-up issues such as irregularity of the bedrock surface, the open pit has had a very promising start, said Jeff Levell, chief geologist with Apollo Gold.
Currently, reserves for the open pit sit at 730,000-ounces of gold, at an average grade of 5.2 gram-per tonne. The nearby underground operations, which are expected to begin production in late 2010, has a reserve of 600,000 ounces.
Apollo has already expanded its Black Fox mill from a capacity of 700 tonnes per day to 1,500-tonnes-per day. That number will further increase after independent contractors complete and hand over the new crushing circuit to Apollo in July, allowing throughput to grow to 1,800-tonnes-per day by late September 2009.
With plans to produce 1,800 tonnes of ore per day and 10,000 tonnes of waste per day, this added milling capacity will prove important, said Levell.
As of early May, the company had already mined 240,000 tonnes of material, 75,000 tonnes of which was ore.
Having landed $70 million in project financing in February 2009, Apollo is already looking to the future with exploration of its Grey Fox project 3.5 kilometres southeast of Black Fox.
Acquired from Hemlo Gold Mines, the property has seen 3,715 metres of drilling since September 2008 to confirm prior work identifying gold mineralization less than 200 metres below surface.
Mark Leroux, information manager with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, says these and other Timmins projects are representative of Ontario's healthy mining sector, despite the cutbacks and shutdowns seen throughout the North.
"I think the lesson here is that you can see gold is very stable as a contributor to Ontario's economy, which is a good, good thing for a gold camp such as Timmins."
