The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - December 6, 2024
Ascot is mobilizing crews and equipment to resume underground development at Premier Mine.
Ascot has placed the mill at Premier on care and maintenance to complete further underground development at the Premier-Northern Lights and Big Missouri mines.
After raising approximately $37.4 million (C$26.6 million) in mid-November, Ascot Resources Ltd. has mobilized crews and equipment to resume underground mining toward the high-grade Premier-Northern Lights gold-silver deposits at the company's Premier project about 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Stewart, British Columbia.
Premier is home to a past-producing gold-silver mine that was last in operation during the 1990s. In recent years, Ascot has been working toward re-establishing a new era of production at Premier.
A feasibility study completed in 2020 detailed plans to develop four underground mines – Big Missouri, Premier, Silver Coin, and Red Mountain – with enough high-grade ore to produce roughly 1.1 million ounces of gold and 3 million oz of silver over the first eight years of mining.
After upgrading and expanding the existing mill at Premier, Ascot began operations in March and poured the first bar of gold in April.
The first commercial ore fed into the mill came from Big Missouri, a high-grade deposit about 3.7 miles (six kilometers) north of the Premier mill, which was to be followed by ore from the Premier-Northern Light deposit adjacent to the mill.
Underground mine development at both deposits, however, fell behind schedule. As a result, they were not able to provide enough ore to feed the mill adequately.
This led to Ascot deciding the best course of action was to suspend the mill until underground development was advanced to a point where Big Missouri and Premier-Northern Lights can sustainably deliver enough ore to run the mill profitably.
Ascot has placed the mill at Premier on care and maintenance to complete further underground development at the Premier-Northern Lights and Big Missouri mines.
The mill suspension was originally expected to last around six months, but in September, the company had not been able to raise funds to complete the needed underground development and put the operation on care and maintenance.
"The company has had a very difficult time since the announcement of the temporary care and maintenance, but that is behind us now and we are all focused on a successful restart and bringing Ascot back into production," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.
The turnaround came with the closing of a $7.5 million (C$10.6 million) secured debt financing from Sprott Private Resource Streaming and Royalty (B) Corp. and the raising of an additional C$42 million ($29.9 million) through a private placement of shares.
With these funds in its treasury, Ascot and its mining contractor, Procon Mining & Tunneling Ltd, began mobilizing to resume underground development toward the Premier-Northern Lights deposit.
So far, the main ramp at Premier-Northern Lights has been advanced 557 meters and is about 112 meters away from ore in the high-grade Prew Zone.
The initial activities at site are to re-establish mine ventilation, undertake minor underground rehabilitation, reinstall underground infrastructure and then start the advance towards the Prew zone.
Ascot's goal is to complete enough underground development at the Premier-Northern Lights and Big Missouri to have both mines delivering ore when the mill restarts, which is currently slated for the second quarter of next year.
"We are excited to restart the development of PNL and progress toward mining the Prew zone so that we can have two mines as ore sources for feeding the mill," White said.
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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