The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
CDE: NYSE and CDM: TSX
President and CEO: Dennis Wheeler
Senior Vice President and CFO: Mitchell Krebs
Senior Vice President, Exploration: Donald Birak
Thanks to the outcome of a four-year legal battle ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. retained a disputed tailings disposal permit for the Kensington gold mine in Southeast Alaska.
One year and two days after the landmark ruling, the Idaho-based miner fired up mills at the high-grade gold mine about 45 miles, or 73 kilometers, northeast of Juneau.
Coeur expects the 1,250-metric-ton-per-day mill to churn out about 50,000 ounces of gold during the rest of 2010 and about 125,000 ounces of gold annually during the operation's initial 12.5-year mine life.
Once in full production, cash costs are expected to average about US$490 per ounce.
Kensington, the third mine the Idaho-based miner has put into production in the last three years, is expected to drive a 135 percent increase in Coeur's 2010 gold production over last year's levels.
With Kensington producing gold, Coeur completed 9,941 feet (3,030 meters) of core drilling in the second quarter of 2010. The main focus of this work was on the Horrible structure, a gold-bearing quartz vein and vein swarm situated about 650 meters west of the current Kensington mining area. The 35 holes drilled through Sept. 6 is the first exploration at Horrible since 1992. The best intersection was Hole H10-016 cut 6.5 feet at 2.39 ounces of gold per short ton. H10-029 cut 3.9 feet at 0.91 oz/t and H10-031 intersected 3.5 feet at 1.07 oz/t.
Coeur said many of the drill holes cut multiple quartz veins which are typical of the style of mineralization seen at the nearby Kensington ore body. Horrible is situated at the north end of a 4,300-meter long, northeast-trending structural and vein belt that contains Kimberly, discovered last year, Jualin and several other gold-bearing quartz veins located west of the operating mine. Coeur is conducting additional drilling to test the greater extension of the dip and strike, both of which remain open for expansion, and commence in-fill drilling on higher-grade zones defined by wide-spaced exploration drilling to-date.
Cash and cash equivalents: C$56 million (at March 31, 2010)
Working capital: C$40.2 million (at March 31, 2010)
Market capitalization: US$1.58 billion (at Sep. 13, 2010)
400 Coeur d'Alene Mines Building
505 Front Ave.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83814
Tel: 208-665-0345
Fax: 208-667-2213
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