Francoeur Mine

Brief history:

The Francoeur property was first staked in 1923 following a gold discovery, which later became known as Zone No.1. A considerable amount of exploration and development has been carried out on the property since this discovery. Successive underground developments over the years have led to the discovery of additional reserves along the Francoeur-Wasa shear zone and several ore bodies were mined. In fact, this property has produced over 500,000 ounces of gold from approximately 2.6 million tonnes of ore with a recovered grade of 6.07 g/t of gold.

 

Over the 1991 - 2001 period, Richmont produced more than 345,000 ounces of gold from the No. 3 Deposit, one of the main ore bodies located in the Francoeur-Wasa shear zone. Despite the discovery of the West Zone at the time, commercial production at the Francoeur Mine was stopped in 2001, when the prevailing gold price was under US$300 per ounce.

 

As a result of the higher gold price over the last few years, Richmont reassessed the resources of the Francoeur Mine. In 2009, in order to update the information on the West Zone, Richmont completed a Regulation 43-101 compliant technical report.

 

Mine development project schedule:

After more than two months of preparation work, dewatering of the mine began in July 2009, and was completed at the end of May 2010. Surface infrastructure for the mine has been fully re-commisioned, and drift excavation to reach the West Zone began in July 2010. After a phase of definition drilling and stope preparation, commercial gold production at the Francoeur Mine began on August 1, 2012.

 

Based on current probable reserves, the Francoeur Mine is expected to produce approximately 20,000 ounces of gold annually over an initial mine life of 4 years. Richmont plans to initiate an underground exploration and definition drilling program once sufficient development work to access the targeted West Zone has been completed.

 

Nearby associated exploration properties:

Richmont is also the 100% owner of the adjacent Arncoeur and Norex properties, which cover the lateral and down-dip extensions of the known gold mineralization.

 

Geological characteristics:

The property is located in the Rouyn-Noranda area, a typical sector of the Archean aged Abitibi greenstone belt located in the eastern part of the Superior Province. There are four basic rock types in the studied area: volcanic rocks of the Blake River Group, sedimentary rocks of the Timiskaming and Cobalt groups, and synvolcanic and late tectonic intrusive rocks. All rocks have been metamorphosed to greenschist facies.

 

The Francoeur deposit is a replacement-type gold deposit that contains coexisting gold and pyrite disseminated in the altered shear zones. Hydrothermal alteration is well developed, and alteration minerals have distinct zonation from orebody outward: albite-pyrite to carbonate-hematite to muscovite-chlorite. Gold mineralization is closely associated with these alterations, especially albite-pyrite alteration.

 

The West Zone is located to the west of the No.3 deposit, which was mined down to the 15th level by Richmont over the 1991-2001 period. The northward-dipping (30° to 40°) orebody lies in the same Francoeur-Wawa shear zone, and gold-bearing mineralization is closely associated with albite-pyrite alteration.