Pine Cove Mine

PINE COVE GOLD MINE

Introduction

Anaconda owns 100% of the Pine Cove open pit mine. The site comprises two contiguous mining leases totalling 659.7 hectares and contains a permitted tailings storage facility. The mine currently has approximately 40 employees at the mill and in administration, plus mining personnel employed through a mining contractor.

Location and Infrastructure

Pine Cove is located on the Baie Verte Peninsula, in north central Newfoundland. Access to the mine is via the Trans-Canada Highway and provincial highways. Power is provided by Newfoundland & Labrador Hydro from existing electrical transmission infrastructure. Water is available from numerous ponds and brooks, none of which are within any community water supply watershed areas. Skilled labour is available in Baie Verte and surrounding communities, an area with a long tradition of mining.

Mineralization and Mineral Resource Estimate

Mineralization consists of shear hosted gold associated with pyrite, as well as visible gold with minor base sulphides in quartz veins. The mineralized zones are approximately stratabound within a northward dipping sequence of coarse grained (likely original gabbro) and finer grained (likely basalt flows) mafic rock, punctuated by minor metasedimentary rocks. A National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated mineral resource[1] totals 2.6 million tonnes grading 2.93 grams per tonne gold and an Inferred resource totalling 0.254 million tonnes grading 2.11 grams per tonne gold. Within these resources, Pine Cove hosts probable reserves of 2.6 grading 2.1 grams gold per tonne for a total of 175,000 ounces of contained gold. The open pit is mined with a strip ratio of 4.3 : 1 over the life of the mine.

Pine Cove Mill

The concentrator has a flotation circuit which produces a gold-pyrite concentrate that advances to the leach circuit. Comminution is via a two-stage crushing plant followed by a 10 ft by 14 ft primary ball mill. Cyclone overflow feeds a recently installed flotation circuit, with four unit cells for roughing and one cleaner cell. Mass recovery is typically 3-7 percent. Flotation concentrate is thickened in a 4.5 m diameter thickener and reground in a 5.5 ft diameter ball mill. Leaching is conducted in a series of four 70 cubic metre mechanically agitated leach tanks. Two drum filters and a Merrill-Crowe circuit are used for gold recovery from pregnant solution, and cyanide destruction of leach tailings is achieved through the Inco SO2 process. Both the mine and the process plant are supported by an on-site assay lab, complete with fire assay and atomic absorption.

Mine Operations

The Pine Cove Mine is an open pit, truck, and shovel operation with eight haul trucks and two excavators. Contract mining is performed by Guy J. Bailey Ltd, with blasting contracted to Newfoundland Hardrok. The mine has in-house supervision and management, with single shifts of 10 hours. On average, 9,000 tonnes per day are extracted from the mine. The pit is currently at 40 metres below starting elevation.