Commercial production at Brucejack gold mine

Pretium Resources Inc. July 3 announced that commercial production has been reached at its Brucejack gold mine in northwestern British Columbia.

During June, the plant at Brucejack processed 70,805 metric tons of ore, for an average of 2,360 metric tons per day. This is about 87.4 percent of the plant's monthly nameplate capacity.

Pretium is considering July 1 as the first official day of commercial production as it meets the definition under a credit agreement with the financial institution that lent the money to finish development of Brucejack.

The high-grade underground mine at Brucejack is expected to produce 7.27 million ounces of gold over an 18-year mine life, or roughly 404,000 oz of the precious metal annually, according to a feasibility study completed in 2014.

The ore to feed this operation comes from Valley of the Kings deposit, which hosts 15.6 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves grading 16.1 grams per metric ton (8.1 million ounces) gold. This includes 3.3 million metric tons of proven reserves averaging 14.5 g/t (1.6 million oz) gold, enough ore for the first three years of production.

Now that commercial production has been achieved, Pretium is introducing higher grade ore to the process plant as work continues on optimizing recoveries in the gravity and flotation circuits.

-SHANE LASLEY