Hollinger Mine Blast To Prepare Way for Gold Mining

TIMMINS - Goldcorp will undertake the first blast at the historic Hollinger in the heart of Timmins, Ontario tomorrow Feb. 11 at 11:30 a.m. leading to the resumption of mining at 100 year old site.

The blast will remove a major bolder from the area and prepare the ground for the construction of the open pit gold mine. 

The life expectancy of the open pit mine is expected to be 10 years.

The Hollinger open pit mine is operated by Goldcorp through its subsidiary Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM).

“We began drilling around Jan. 28, and the first blast is now expected for this coming week (Feb.11, 2014),” Paul Miller, superintendent of surface operations for the Hollinger project told Timmins City Council on Monday February 3rd.

“The date we're now targeting is Feb. 11, and public notifications are being sent out and there will be some immediate analysis on the first blast.”

“The initial blast will be very small, in the 3,000 to 4,000 tonne range to begin with, and located on the south-east location of the property in an area where we're distant from residents and businesses.”

Miller played an animated video for council depicting hat the open pit mine could look like after mining ceases in about 10 years.

Once mining is finished the open pit will fill with water and create Hollinger Lake. Closure plans propose using the area around the newly created Hollinger Lake for trails, and even a beach area.

 Plans also call for turning the area into a park with benches and nature look out. In terms of size Hollinger Lake would be larger than Gillies Lake to the northwest across Highway 101.

A public input meeting regarding the future use of the Hollinger property will be held at the McIntyre Arena on Feb. 27 between 3 and 9 p.m. Miller said residents are encouraged to come forward and submit their own vision and ideas for the area.

 For more information visit

www.porcupinegoldmines.ca to view the video animation and to keep tabs on the live monitoring of noise, sound and dust levels around the mine.

To view Porcupine Gold Mines council presentation  click on the following link http://timminson.swagit.com/player.php?refid=02032014-2