The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Proud to report zero COVID cases while advancing gold project North of 60 Mining News – December 18, 2020
A Herc 737 cargo jet arrives at Goose during the 2020 season. This year, 220 flights delivered fuel, equipment, supplies, and personnel to the northern Nunavut gold mine project.
Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. Dec. 16 reported that, despite getting a late start to the 2020 season due to COVID-19, crews made progress on several preconstruction objectives at the Goose gold mine project on its Back River property in Nunavut.
Pre-construction activities that further advanced the Goose camp and readied the mine project for a productive year in 2021 included:
• Extension of the existing all-weather airstrip from 3,000 to 4,500 feet to facilitate the use of large capacity cargo and transport aircraft to support underground development and future operations.
• The safe completion of 220 flights delivering fuel, equipment, supplies, and personnel during 2020.
• The procurement and delivery of underground equipment required to advance an exploration decline at Goose.
• Completion of the excavation required to collar the exploration decline next spring.
• Completion of the pad to construct a workshop for the underground equipment, as well as earthworks for a settling pond to store water pumped out of the new underground development.
• Construction of roughly four kilometers (2.5 miles) of all-weather roads connecting the exploration camp, underground exploration ramp area, fuel tank pads, and permanent camp complex.
"These pre-development activities put us in an ideal position to move the project forward next spring," said Sabina Gold & Silver President and CEO Bruce McLeod. "Not only will they make work more efficient as we move towards construction, they further de-risk the project schedule."
The company is particularly proud that it completed this work and the 2020 program without any cases of COVID-19, the only large-scale mining camp in Northwest Territories to boast such a claim.
The company attributes this feat to a strict COVID operational framework that required monitoring and Health Canada approved testing of personnel before arriving at Back River, and onsite mitigation and monitoring at the project.
"We have now demobilized from camp for the 2020 season, and I am very proud of our team's efforts and safety track record with no lost time incidents and no cases of COVID on site," said McLeod. "We are all excited for 2021 and beyond."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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