Resource World Magazine

a u g u s t / s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 www.resourceworld.com 41 The deposit was discovered in 1892 and acquired in 1909 by the CPR-owned Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (later Cominco Ltd. and Teck Cominco). The mine's economic success resulted largely from Sullivan's 1916 development of the dif- ferential flotation process that allowed separate recovery of lead and zinc con- centrates in the milling process. This technology has been used worldwide for various types of ore bodies. In its lifetime the mine produced ore containing over 17 million tons of zinc and lead and more than 285 million ounces of silver which were together worth more than $20 billion. After 92 years of active production, the Sullivan Mine closed in 2001. With the downturn in commodity prices, the hunt for new polymetallic mineral deposits has slowed but hardly stopped. Resources at existing mines are being depleted and the development time- frame for new production has climbed from around 13 years in Canada, Australia and the US to more than 20 years else- where. New projects are in the pipeline but they are generally small scale and will hardly make up for the production losses of large depleted open pit mines. Among others, the Antamina copper- zinc-molybdenum mine in Peru, owned by BhP [BHP-ASX], Glencore, teck Resources [TCK.B-TSX; TCK-NYSE] and Mitsubishi [TYO-7011], is scheduled to close in 2019 and its stockpiles depleted three years later. Kidd Creek will cease production in 2021 barring any new dis- covery. At some point – maybe sooner than people think – supply shortfalls will develop, perhaps leading to exponential increases for key industrial metals. Some smaller scale production is in the pipeline including eldorado Gold's [ELD-TSX; EGO-NYSE] Olympias Project, an underground, polymetallic (gold- silver-lead-zinc) mine in the Chalkidiki Peninsula, northern Greece. Eldorado is primarily viewed as a gold producer but like so many others has additional metal credits associated with its gold output. The past producing Olympias Mine is currently being redeveloped in phases. The first phase, which is scheduled for comple- tion by year end, consists of refurbishing the underground mine and processing the existing 2.4 million tonnes of surface tail- ings as part of the environmental clean-up agreed to in the Environmental Impact Study. Phase II involves processing ore from the Olympias underground through the existing, refurbished mill using a flota- tion process to produce three concentrates: lead, silver, zinc, and gold-bearing pyrite- arsenopyrite. The concentrator is designed to be operated at a throughput of 385,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). Estimated average annual gold production during the first full four years of Phase II (excluding ramp- up in 2016) is 60,725 oz gold at a cash cost of $309/oz (including by-product credits). Phase III involves a production ramp-up on completion of the 8-km underground tunnel to a new surface concentrator plant at a brown field site in the nearby Stratoni Valley. The mine is designed to be oper- ated at a throughput of 800,000 tpa. Diversified metal producer, Lundin Mining [LUN-TSX], produced the first commercial concentrate at its Eagle nickel and copper mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the fourth quarter 2014. The Eagle deposit is a high-grade mag- matic sulphide deposit containing nickel and copper mineralization and minor amounts of cobalt, precious and platinum group metals. Eagle is a relatively shallow underground mine with access gained via a surface ramp that also serves as the route for waste, ore and backfill haulage. Current mineral reserves at Eagle are sufficient for a mine life of eight years. PolyMet Mining [POM-TSX; PLM- NYSE] controls 100% of the NorthMet copper-nickel-precious metals deposit in the Mesabi Range in northeastern Minnesota. Last February, Polymet secured a US $30 million loan facility with Glencore AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glencore plc. The purpose of the loan facility was to cover anticipated costs through 2015 for the final environmental Impact Statement and the subsequent issu- ance of permits needed to construct and operate NorthMet. The company also owns the Erie Plant and associated infrastructure on the for- mer LTV Steel Mining Company site about six miles west of NorthMet and was origi- nally built to process taconite. The site, A view of the Olympias underground, polymetallic (gold-silver-lead-zinc) mine located in the Chalkidiki Peninsula in northern Greece. Photo courtesy Eldorado Gold Corp. Turkey's nexT producer www.aldridgeminerals.ca phone 416 477-6984 TSX-V: AGM m i n e r a l S i n c.

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