The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Recalculation lifts Iron Cap, Kerr block cave mine resources North of 60 Mining News - February 7, 2024
Drilling has outlined 160 million oz of gold, 58 billion lb of copper, 878 million oz of silver, and 1.2 billion lb of molybdenum in surface and underground deposits at KSM.
Seabridge Gold Inc. Feb. 5 reported that a recalculation based on block cave mining methods has significantly expanded the quantities of gold, copper, and silver within the Iron Cap and Kerr deposits at its world-class KSM project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
In 2022, Seabridge published the results of a prefeasibility study for open-pit mining of the Mitchell, East Mitchell, and Sulphurets deposits at KSM that would produce an average of more than 1 million ounces of gold, 3 million oz of silver, 178 million pounds of copper and 4.2 million lb of molybdenum annually for 33 years.
At the same time, the company completed a preliminary economic assessment on underground block cave mining of the deeper Iron Cap and Kerr deposits.
Over the 39 years of mining considered in the PEA, 14.3 million oz of gold, 14.3 billion lb of copper, 68.2 million oz of silver, and 13.8 million lb of molybdenum would be produced from 1.7 billion metric tons of mill feed extracted from underground mining of these deep deposits.
This mine plan is based on 223 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.31 g/t (2.5 million oz) gold, 0.45% (2.23 billion lb) copper, and 1.8 g/t (13 million oz) silver; plus 1.47 billion metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.44 g/t (20.7 million oz) gold, 0.43% (13.78 billion lb) copper, and 2.3 g/t (109 million oz) silver in the Iron Cap and Kerr deposit.
This resource, however, was based on cut-off grades for more conventional underground mining. Considering that it is assumed that these deeper deposits will be mined by block caving, Seabridge has had the resources recalculated based on the less selective bulk tonnage underground mining method and metals prices consistent with those used to calculate the Mitchell and East Mitchell open pit deposits in 2022.
"As we move towards a joint venture on KSM, it makes sense to normalize our resource estimates across all of KSM's deposits," said Seabridge Gold Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk.
Based on block cave mining constraining shapes, Iron Cap and Kerr now host 384.9 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.22 g/t (2.7 million oz) gold, 0.41% (3.46 billion lb) copper, and 1.2 g/t (14.3 million oz) silver; plus 2.59 billion metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.27 g/t (22.8 million oz) gold, 0.35% (19.85 billion lb) copper, and 1.7 g/t (142.3 million oz) silver.
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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