Eagle Gold Mine on verge of completion

Victoria Gold Corp. May 7 reported that construction of Eagle Gold is 90 percent complete and Yukon's next major mine is slated to pour its first gold before the end of the year.

"With construction activities on the verge of completion and operations well advanced, the Eagle Gold Mine is nearing reality," said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell. "The mine is ahead of schedule and ready to deliver tremendous value for all Victoria stakeholders for many years to come."

Once in production, Eagle Gold is expected to average around 200,000 ounces of gold annually over an initial 10-year mine life. The gold mined from the open-pit at Eagle will be recovered via heap leaching, a process that involves stacking the ore on a lined pad and using a mildly acidic leaching agent trickled over the ore to dissolve the gold into a solution that is pumped through a facility that recovers the gold.

Current activities on site are focused on completing mechanical, electrical and instrumentation installation at the crushing plant and the overland conveyor as well as early pre-commissioning.

One of the next major milestones is the delivery of grid electricity to Eagle Gold. The powerline to site is set to be energized in early May and will be used for commissioning and into operations.

There are 22 primary systems and 79 subsystems that have been identified in the commissioning plan which will facilitate early commissioning and a smooth commissioning schedule.

Overall, more than 10 percent of the commissioning has already been completed and substantial progress is expected during the month of May.

The primary crusher is completed and will be fully pre-commissioned in the coming days.

The secondary & tertiary crushing facility structural steel is substantially complete. Mechanical progress is nearing completion with all major components expected to be fully installed in the coming days. The team is focused on electrical implementation and the facility is on track for an on-time completion.

The overland conveyor, which takes the crushed ore 1,400 meters across the valley to the heap leach facility, is well ahead of schedule. Commissioning of the overland conveyor is scheduled for mid-May. Several other conveyors are nearing completion with three already pre-commissioned.

The four-layer liner system and solution piping for the sump of the heap leach pad was complete in late 2018 and lining of the initial phase of the heap leach pad above the sump is well advanced. Once this lining is complete, the heap leach pad will have enough capacity to stack ore into 2021.

All major construction activities at the gold recovery plant are complete and pre-commission is roughly 65 percent complete.

The first ore is slated to be stacked on the heap leach pad early in the second half of this year and the first gold recovered from the Eagle Mine is expected to be poured early in the fourth quarter.

As construction nears completion, Victoria continues to advance recruitment of the team that will work at the mine during operations. The company has already hired its operations management team and key supervisors. Roughly 164 of the planned 260 operations personnel have been hired. So far, about 45 percent of the staff are Yukon residents, including several citizens from the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun. Victoria hopes Yukoners will make up at least half of the Eagle Gold Mine staff when the hiring is complete.

The construction crew has surpassed 1.25 million hours of work without a lost time incident.

–SHANE LASLEY