Gowest Gold Hosts Timmins Open House

Gowest Gold held an open house at the McIntyre Community Centre on Monday, Dec. 1st, 2014 to update residents of the City of Timmins about its proposal to establish a mine at its Bradshaw Deposit, located about 40 km north of downtown Timmins.

Greg Romaine, the President and CEO of Gowest Gold and other representatives of Gowest Gold were on hand to explain the implications of the advanced exploration work at the Bradshaw Deposit. The advanced exploration stage allows Gowest to remove bulk samples that will aid in deciding with the project is viable to proceed to a fully productive mining.

Kevin Montgomery, Gowest’s Exploration Manager said that the work will result in the extraction of 30,000 tonnes of ore and 200,000 tonnes of waste rock. Twenty employees will be hired to undertake the management of the project and the onsite work.

Greg Romaine, Gowest President and CEO, and Timmins native, explained the purpose of the advanced exploration state is to show the economic viability of the Bradshaw deposit. Once the viability of the opening a new gold mine in the Timmins areas is fully proven by the information produced from the advanced exploration stage the information will be used to seek investment needed to bring the mine into production.

 Romaine said that a recent $4 million investmentby Chinese investment firm Fortune Future Holdings Limited of China, demonstrated the investment community is ready to support and fund development of the Bradshaw deposit into a productive mine.

“They are really enthusiastic about what we have discovered at the Bradshaw Deposit,” Romaine said. “Based on the information we have compiled during the exploration stage they really believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Before proceeding however Gowest must obtain permits from the Ontario government for its environmental management plan, including waste water management plan and its closure plan.

The open house was held to obtain public comments that identify concerns about Gowest Gold’s advanced stage mining program. In order to receive environmental permits required to proceed Gowest has to identify and address possible environmental problems that may arise for its advanced exploration.

Open houses were also held with the Mattagami and Matachewan First Nations.

Once granted the permits, Gowest will be allowed to remove 30,000 tonnes of ore and 200,000 of waste rock. The ore will be milled and concentrated at the Kidd Creek, MET Site. The concentrate will then be shipped to the United Commodity refinery in Cobalt. Earlier this year Gowest signed memorandums of understanding with Kidd Creek and United Commodity to provide milling and smelting services.

“The purpose of the advanced exploration stage is give us a better idea of how much it will cost to extract the ore, mill it and refine it,” said Kevin Montgomery, Gowest’s Manger of Exploration. A $1 million feasibility study is being completed by Stantec for Gowest in the first quarter of 2015

The advanced exploration work will wrap up by mid-2015. If everything works out well we will be in production my mid-2016 or 2017.The mine will created between 300 and 500 full time jobs.