The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Newcrest selects Aussie contractor for exploration decline North of 60 Mining News – April 30, 2021
Newcrest plans to transition the current open pit mine at Red Chris copper-gold project in Northern BC to an underground block cave operation in the next five to six years.
Perenti Global Ltd. April 26 announced that its underground mining subsidiary, Barminco, has received a letter of intent from Newcrest Mining Ltd. for the development of a 3,500-meter underground exploration decline at the Red Chris copper-gold project in Northern British Columbia.
Owned under a joint venture partnership between Newcrest (70%) and Imperial Metals Corp. (30%), the Red Chris Mine hosts 980 million metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 0.41 grams per metric ton (13 million oz) gold and 0.38% (3.7 million metric tons) copper.
This includes 310 million metric tons of open-pit mineable measured and indicated resource averaging 0.28 g/t (2.7 million oz) gold and 0.34% (1 million metric tons) copper; and 670 million metric tons of underground measured and indicated resource averaging 0.46 g/t (10 million oz) gold and 0.4% (2.7 million metric tons) copper.
These initial Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant resources will form the foundation for a prefeasibility study that will provide a first look at block cave mining at Red Chris.
Earlier this year, Newcrest announced plans to invest C$12 million to begin construction of a box cut for the underground decline at Red Chris. The surface work and related infrastructure being established by this work is in preparation for the underground development needed for more detailed exploration and eventually mining.
Perenti Global Managing Director and CEO Mark Norwell said the opportunity to develop this exploration ramp at Red Chris is an encouraging step on the road to expanding the Australia-based company's North American presence.
"Geographic expansion has been a key focus of our 2025 strategy and this early-stage work at Red Chris builds on our regional growth capabilities after commencing in North America just over a year ago," he said.
The Perenti CEO hopes this initial mining will lead to a much larger job at Red Chris.
"The underground exploration decline works are a significant opportunity and puts the company in a strong position to access the much wider scope of works associated with the potential block cave development that Newcrest aims to progress towards in the coming years," said Norwell.
Perenti subsidiary Barminco says it will be working closely with Tahltan Nation Development Corporation and intends to establish the foundations for an ongoing partnership to create social and economic value for the members of the Tahltan Nation and the region.
"We acknowledge and respect the Tahltan as the First Nations people of the area and we look forward to working together at the Red Chris project," said Barminco Mining CEO Paul Muller. "Our focus at Red Chris will be on delivering safe, reliable and efficient development services and we look forward to building a long and productive relationship with Newcrest, the members of the Tahltan Nation and all of our stakeholders in British Columbia."
Over the coming weeks, as Barminco mobilizes to begin the underground mining, Newcrest and Perenti will work toward finalizing the contract before development begins, which is slated for mid-2021.
Perenti expects the contract will be worth roughly US$30 million (A$38 million) over 16 months.
Newcrest plans to begin block cave mining at Red Chris in the next five or six years.
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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