The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Kensington gold output steady; larger Silvertip mine evaluated North of 60 Mining News – February 18, 2022
Looking over Coeur Mining's Kensington Mine in Alaska.
Coeur is evaluating opportunities to enhance the economics of restarting a larger mine at its Silvertip project in Northern BC.
Coeur Mining Inc. Feb. 16 reported strong gold production during the fourth quarter at its Kensington Mine in Southeast Alaska and continued progress toward the restart of an expanded mine at its Silvertip project in Northern BC.
During the final three months of 2021, Kensington produced 33,516 ounces of gold from 168,295 tons of ore averaging 0.21 ounces per ton gold. This is nearly a 19% increase over the 28,621 recovered from 160,596 tons of ore during the third quarter.
The higher-grade Jualin deposit accounted for approximately 19% of Kensington's fourth-quarter production, compared to roughly 13% during the previous quarter.
As a result of the strong end to the year, Kensington produced 121,140 oz of gold from 667,560 tons of ore averaging 0.19 oz/t gold during 2021. This hit at about the mid-point of Coeur's 115,000 to 130,000 oz gold guidance for the Southeast Alaska mine.
This year, the Chicago-based mining company expects Kensington to produce between 110,000 and 120,000 oz of gold. This lower guidance for 2022 is primarily due to lower expected grade feed compared to last year.
Going into 2022, Kensington hosted 1.35 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.194 oz/t (1.08 million oz) gold.
As steady production continues at Kensington, Coeur is evaluating opportunities to enhance the economics of restarting operations at its Silvertip Mine about 180 miles northeast of Kensington in British Columbia.
This evaluation included US$19 million invested into exploration at the high-grade silver project during 2021.
This investment funded 102,725 meters of drilling that increased inferred resources at Silvertip by 62% last year.
Going into 2022, Silvertip hosted 2.82 million tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 9.35 oz/t (26.3 million oz) silver, 10.46% (389.4 million lb) zinc, and 5.55% (312.6 million lb) lead; plus 2.35 million tons of inferred resource averaging 7.57 oz/t (17.8 million oz) silver, 8.98% (422.3 million lb) zinc, and 4.27% (200.7 million lb) lead.
Recent surface drilling south of the Southern Silver zone has cut 11 horizontal manto-style massive sulfide horizons with greater than 10% sphalerite (zinc mineral), further suggesting the mineral system extends to the south.
Highlights from 2021 drilling at Southern Silver include:
• 6.4 meters averaging 493.7 grams per metric ton silver, 23.7% zinc, and 8.7% lead.
• 6.4 meters averaging 630.9 g/t silver, 14.8% zinc, and 10.5% lead.
• 5.8 meters averaging 267.4 g/t silver, 21.3% zinc, and 3.9% lead.
• 20 meters averaging 92.5 g/t silver, 16.9% zinc, and 0.5% lead.
• 10.8 meters of 445.7 g/t silver, 19.4% zinc, and 7.5% lead.
• 5.2 meters of 617.1 g/t silver, 7.7% zinc, and 12% lead.
Coeur believes Southern Silver could become a significant source of reserves for its planned reopening of the Silvertip Mine.
Similarly, surface drilling at the Camp Creek zone discovered a new chimney-style massive sulfide zone west of the Camp Creek fault, an area that remains completely open to expansion.
Coeur says all the main Silvertip orebodies – Discovery South, Southern Silver and Camp Creek – remain completely open for expansion.
For this year, the company plans to continue the resource growth program and follow-up drilling activity on the newly discovered zones.
Coeur's 2022 capital expenditures at Silvertip are expected to be approximately US$18 million to US$24 million, primarily focused on underground development and infill drilling, as well as study work to evaluate additional opportunities to enhance the economics of the potential restart of a larger mine at the Northern BC project.
"With continued exploration success, coupled with successful study work in support of a larger scale operation, Silvertip holds the potential to be Coeur's next growth driver," said Coeur Mining President and CEO Mitchell Krebs.
Coeur also owns a roughly 18% stake in Victoria Gold Corp., owner and operator of the Eagle Gold Mine about 325 miles northwest of Silvertip in the Yukon.
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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