Suppliers Roundup (March 15, 2004)

GLR picks Gekko at Goldfields

GLR Resources has ordered a 2,000-ton-per-day Gekko Systems modular gravity concentrator for its Goldfields gold project, 15 km south of Uranium City in northern Saskatchewan.

The gravity leaching unit will be the first of its kind used in Canada, though the technology is already widely employed in Australia.

Gekko has carried out extensive testing on Goldfields material grading from less than one gram to 60 grams gold per tonne. Tests indicate that treatment by gravity concentration and a combination of primary jigging and centrifugal scavenging results in a gravity concentrate containing 85% gold.

The concentrates tested were highly amendable to intense cyanidation. Leach recoveries of 98-99% are expected.

The project flowsheet provides for relatively low capital and operating costs, compared with traditional whole-ore cyanidation processes.

Gekko Systems is based in Victoria, Australia, with satellite offices in Vancouver and Johannesburg.

JS Redpath to cut a drift

Mining contractor J.S. Redpath has been commissioned to build Apollo Gold’s exploration drift at the Black Fox project, near Timmins, Ont.

The exploration drift will be developed from the existing underground workings at Black Fox, formerly known as the Glimmer mine.

The 1,250-metre drift will be 235 metres below surface in the hangingwall along the strike of the ore zone. It will be used as a platform for drilling 80,000 metres over the next 18 months. An underground drilling contract will be tendered and awarded over the next few months.

The exploration drift will also be used to develop test stopes for further underground mining and obtain a bulk sample for metallurgical studies. Apollo Gold also wants to use the drift to study ways to delineate the next portion of underground mineralization.

“The exploration drift is an important step in developing additional mineralization zones for the underground phase of the Black Fox project,” says Richard Nanna, vice-president of exploration for Apollo Gold. “To date, more than 80,000 metres of core drilling from 296 holes have been completed from the surface to identify gold-bearing structures.”

An additional 40,000 metres of core drilling from the surface are planned for later this year.

Apollo Gold is based in Denver, Colo., and has operations in Nevada and Montana.

J.S. Redpath is based in North Bay, Ont., and has sunk shafts and built mining projects throughout the world.

Downer does big deals

Downer EDI, a Sydney-based engineering company, has won two mining contracts worth a total of A$100 million.

Roche Mining, a fully owned unit of Downer, has begun a contract at the Cracow gold mine in Queensland. Roche will build a camp, excavate a decline, and develop level access.

The company was also selected for open-pit, cut-back mining by Argyle Diamonds at the company’s operations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Downer EDI is Australia’s second-largest engineering and resource services company, with assets of A$2 billion.

Red Valve opens in Sudbury

The Red Valve Co., which makes industrial valves and joints for the mining industry, has opened a subsidiary operation in Sudbury, Ont., with the aim of establishing a presence in Canada’s largest mining market.

Red Valve Canada will supply companies in the Sudbury area with pinch valves, control valves, expansion joints, knifegate valves, pressure sensors, and Tideflex check valves.

Red Valve opened in 1953 and is based in Carnegie, Pa.

Two drills head to China

Huafeng Drilling Co. of China has ordered two more Christensen CS-1000 surface drills from Atlas Copco. The rigs will be used at Pacific Minerals Canada’s 217 gold property, 700 km northwest of Beijing.

Vancouver-based Pacific Minerals has leased the property from the Chinese government.

The drilling program, already under way, is designed to update the resource model. Charlie Choi, Atlas Copco’s product manager for greater China, says depths of more than 600 metres have been reached. “With targets in excess of 600 metres under these conditions, the CS-1000 long-stroke drill with Tuff core barrels and Hobic bits has been averaging forty-five to fifty metres per ten-hour shift,” he says.

The Christensen rigs are manufactured at Atlas Copco’s plant in North Bay, Ont.

Atlas Copco has eight sales offices in China.