Anaconda Mining Inc (ANX-T)
High prices drive Nova Scotia gold exploration
AARON BESWICK THE CHRONICLE HERALD | PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 23, 2017 - 7:12PM | UPDATED NOVEMBER 23, 2017 - 7:19PM
 Scott Wellman and Kelsey Andrews drill for gold in Goldboro.An ounce of gold was trading for about C$1,640 at one point on Thursday.
To put that in perspective — your average slice of bread weighs about an ounce.
Prices like that are why Scott Wellman and Kelsey Andrews will be punching 12-hour shifts in a steel can behind Goldboro until March.
They are one of the teams that will keep the drill running 24 hours a day for Anaconda Mining Inc.
“We are a mining company and our goal is to put Goldboro into production within the next couple years,” Paul McNeil, vice president of exploration for Anaconda, said on Wednesday.
Mixed mine
Senior geologist Bruce Mitchell examines core samples brought up by Anaconda Mining Inc. gold exploration drilling in Goldboro. (AARON BESWICK / Staff)
Anaconda operates a mine on Newfoundland’s Baie Verte peninsula that produces about 16,000 ounces of gold a year. In March, Anaconda took over Orex Exploration via a share swap worth about $12 million and became owner of the latter’s property and claims in Goldboro.
Anaconda plans to drill between 20 and 25 holes to fill in the resource mapping already done by Orex.
With that data, they’ll create something called a preliminary economic assessment and then something called a pre-feasibility study. From there, if they want to pull the trigger, they’ll go looking for money to build the mine.
Mines aren’t cheap — Atlantic Gold’s open pit mine in Moose River cost $130 million before the first bar was poured.
Anaconda’s would be a mix of open pit and underground mine.
“When you see a new, large project it brings a lot of attention to an area,” McNeil said of Atlantic Gold.
“These other projects become validated by that process.”
Seeking safety, sparking interestRELATED: Anaconda acquires Guysborough mining operation
After the 2008 financial collapse, capital rushed toward the safety of gold — sending the price skyrocketing from US$732 an ounce in November, 2008, to highs of US$1,833 an ounce in 2011.
Though the price moderated some, it has been steady of late and on Monday was selling at a healthy US$1,287.65 an ounce.
Between consistently strong prices and Atlantic Gold’s successful start, a lot of eyes are on Nova Scotia.
Garth Demont’s eyes are on the Cobequid Highlands — specifically a 30,000-hectare area between Earltown, Tatamagouche and Wentworth.
“We have all the indications that there could be something there,” said the community liaison geologist for the Department of Natural Resources.
The area’s potential was identified as part of a program started five years ago by the Department of Natural Resources to map the geology of the Cobequid Highlands.
The department has put a mineral claims closure on the area as it gathers geological data along with environmental risk factors and community concerns around potential mining. There will be a community meeting on Saturday afternoon at the Warwick Recreation Centre for the public to give their input.
From there, they will put together a package to attract exploration companies and issue a request for proposals.
“The geologists identified an area that could hold epithermal gold deposits,” said Demont.
“Basically, it’s the same sort of deposits as (are) down in Nevada.”
What’s old is new againUltimately, he expects it would take five to 10 years of drilling by an exploration firm to determine if there are commercial quantities of gold there.
Back in Goldboro, Steve Barrett is busy with his own deposit.
At 7:30 each morning, the exploration manager gets the core samples from the previous 24 hours of drilling.
His team measures them and looks for signs of gold.
When these geologists think of the earth they think of it in three dimensions.
Bruce Mitchell takes a notepad and folds it over on itself and points to the gaps created in the pages at the fold.
The earth they are drilling through had layers of sand and mud that became different kinds of stone hundreds of millions of years ago.
Later, the heave and haul of continents bent those sandwiched pages of geological history into a shape like Mitchell’s notebook.
And into those spaces came molten rock from below that crystalized as the white quartz in the samples Mitchell examined — that’s where most the gold is.
Anaconda’s not the first to come looking for it by a long margin.
Just outside their building, under a sheet of steel, is a 37-metre-deep mine shaft.
Between 1892 and 1912, miners carried rock bearing 55,000 ounces of gold out of the ground.
It’s Anaconda’s bet that there’s plenty left.
“It is kind of exciting,” said Barrett.
“You’re always looking for something.” |
