Timmins West Mine (Operating Mine)

Timmins West Mine is located 18 kilometres west of Timmins, Ontario, host to one of the world’s most prolific gold camps. The Mine includes two deposits, the Timmins Deposit and Thunder Creek Deposit, which are approximately 800 metres apart and are connected by two drifts. Ore from the Mine is trucked approximately 42 kilometres to the Bell Creek Mill for processing (see Bell Creek Mill section). Timmins West Mine was in commercial production as of January 1, 2012.

 

Timmins West Mine is an underground mining operation that produces ore using a 710 metre, 5.5 metre diameter shaft, with a 6,000 tonne per day total hoisting capacity. The ore is accessed using mobile equipment via internal ramps both from surface and the main shaft. Primary mining methods include longitudinal longhole mining at Timmins Deposit, with sublevels established at 20 metre vertical intervals, and transverse longhole mining at the Thunder Creek Deposit with a primary/secondary stoping sequence. Broken ore is removed from the stopes using remote controlled LHDs, loaded into trucks and hauled to the main shaft rockbreaker station prior to skipping to surface. The mine currently produces at approximately 2,500 tonnes per day, and its infrastructure and orebody will support a rate of approximately 3,000 tonnes per day.

 

In the first nine months of 2013, the Timmins West Mine produced 65,500 ounces of gold which resulted from processing 487,700 tonnes at an average grade of 4.4 grams per tonne. Production during the first nine of the year was primarily from stopes in the Rusk and Porphyry zones between the 660 and 765 levels at Thunder Creek and in the UM Zone between the 650 and 790 levels and Footwall Zone between the 770 and 790 levels at Timmins Deposit.

 

Production at Timmins West Mine is subject to a 2.25% net smelter returns (“NSR”) royalty in favour of Franco-Nevada Corporation. In addition, there are several royalties applicable to various land areas comprising the Timmins West Mine. Most of the additional royalties do not cover areas of known mineralization, with the exception of a 1% NSR royalty applicable to production at the Thunder Creek Deposit.

 

Both Timmins Deposit and Thunder Creek have considerable exploration potential both at depth and along strike.


Quarterly Production



(1) Grams per tonne 


Probable Reserves



(1) Grams per tonne 


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