Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/162873
terms of accessibility and infrastructure, from its airstrip and commercial barge landing site on the property to a 23km road that connects them to the main deposits. Management says permitting to date has been clear and predictable, comparable with other top rated jurisdictions elsewhere in Canada and globally. The infrastructure at Coffee allows site access year-round; drilling began this year on March 1st. Thomas said that Coffee offers good optionality and the potential to build a scalable operation focusing on highgrade, near surface material at the outset and growing operations over time. Coffee represents a relatively high-grade, hydrothermal, structurally controlled oxide gold system with deposits beginning at surface which are currently open in all directions including to depth. Thomas notes that drilling at depth has been limited at this stage because there is still good potential to add additional, shallow ounces along strike of the known deposits. In the Supremo area alone, the company has identified over 9 km of mineralized, contiguous strike. The deepest hole so far is 464 metres. She said, "If market conditions continue to be challenging, we can focus on the near surface high-grade ounces, keeping capital costs as low as possible, "So far our metallurgical test work has shown gold recovery to be excellent," Thomas said, "Mother Nature has done so much of the work for us by oxidizing the deposit." Kaminak is in the process of completing a much more comprehensive metallurgical program in 2013 to back up these positive preliminary results. Drilling this year targeted, what Kaminak perceives to be, high-value ounces, near-surface, high-grade within and along the margins of the conceptual pits being envisaged in the Supremo-LatteDouble Double areas. "We are thinking smart ounces," said Thomas, "and what potential mining scenarios might look like." She said there are many other targets outside of Supremo that represent priority targets for the future. Though she didn't name any names, 12 www.resourceworld.com Thomas said the Coffee Project has attracted the interest of the majors, now that the company is positioned to cross the finish line. Thomas said that the preliminary economic analysis will, no doubt, be a key milestone for the company and set the direction for the company and the Project in 2014. CAPSTONE MINING CORP. [CS-TSX] The last stop on the media tour was Capstone's producing Minto Mine. Capstone has two producing copper mines, the Minto Mine in Yukon and the Cozamin Mine in Mexico as well as exploration and development projects. Capstone is open pit mining the second of a series of several high-grade areas interspersed with large deposits of lowgrade material. The company is using the first exhausted pit as a tailings pond and once the second pit is exhausted, it will serve as a tailings pond for the third pit. The process will be repeated over six pits. Capstone reports that "Successive prefeasibility studies have been completed, labelled Phase I to VI, each representing the addition of new reserves and mine life, to enter the permitting process as exploration success has been realised." Minto's should be able to mine until 2022 with its current reserves. The property still has exploration potential and there are plans to do some exploration drilling in the near future. The company has begun underground development and is building a portal to access ore in the Minto East, Fireweed and the 2/118 areas which are deeper, highgrade mineral reserves. Capstone took us on a tour of the underground workings and they expect to be "in the ore" this year. Construction of an underground fresh air vent is almost complete and production is expected to begin shortly. Underground production will supplement ore mined from the open pits. Currently Capstone has contracted out the underground development work but plans to handle the mining internally. By the end of the year, Minto Mine will also have a new camp as they have out- grown their current facilities and have had to resort to using RV's. A new camp will be built at the end of August able to house 300 workers. Capstone has also changed their pit blasting methods in order to achieve a good pit face since dealing with pit wall integrity issues. An unexpected highlight of the tour was when Klondike Gold Corp.'s President, Erich Rauguth, invited the media tour to visit Klondike Gold's placer project, in the heart of the Klondike, about 30 km from Dawson City. We got to try our hand at panning for gold and, with expert coaching, we were rewarded with a few bright spots in our pans. It was exciting to witness firsthand gold being recovered from the rich Klondike ground. The region has, since 1896, produced 20 million gold ounces. Today, about 50,000 ounces are produced from this area per year. On the ride out to the project we passed by many placer operations both historic and operational. Klondike Gold acquired the placer operation when it acquired the Lone Star property which is the home of the last known major placer camp and it is where Klondike Gold believes there is a "yet to be discovered" large scale, hard rock mine. Most of the 137 km2 property is underexplored and exploration points to a local source of the placer gold. The property hosts a very large geochemical anomaly and the company reports that, "There are now four target zones demonstrating significant gold mineralization and resource potential including Lone Star, Nugget, Buckland and Pioneer. A fifth zone, the JF, is drill ready." Klondike Gold's goal is to follow up on all Lone Star targets with extensive RC exploration drilling and trenching. n www.resourceworld.com SEPTEMBER 2013