Resource World Magazine

46 www.resourceworld.com J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 8 MINING O ntario's White River Township is perhaps best known for being the home of Winnie the Pooh, a fictional, human-like teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne. In fact, the town of White River celebrates "Winnie's Hometown Festival" the third week in August. These days the economically fragile community has some - thing more tangible to celebrate: Harte Gold Corp.'s. [HRT-TSX; HRTFF-OTC] Sugar Zone Project, one of the highest grade under- ground gold mines in Canada currently being developed for commercial production. In 2017, Harte spent $69 million on mill, infrastructure and mine development with the intention of producing gold in the first quartile of cash costs by the end of 2018. The mill flowsheet will initially involve a gravity circuit to recover gold in Falcon concentrators. Recovered gold will then be sent to a shaker table and smelted into doré bars for sale. Gold not recovered in the gravity circuit will be processed through a series of flotation cells and recovered in concentrate form. The company is currently evaluating several alternative markets for its gold concentrate and expects to make a final decision shortly. Mine development is well underway with ramp (sloping tun - nel) and level development to five levels now complete and the company reports that the gold resource has tripled at the Sugar and Middle Zones to 714,200 ounces grading 8.52 g/t (indicated) and 760,800 averaging 6.59 g/t inferred. The project benefits significantly from proximity to the Hemlo Gold Camp and several mining operations in the Wawa area. In addition, several businesses in the area provide services to the exploration and mining sector and a long history of mining in the region contributes to a skilled work force. Access is somewhat reminiscent of the Hemlo mines as the Sugar Zone Project is acces - sible by road 30 km north of White River on the Trans-Canada Highway. A Hydro One transmission line and the Canadian Pacific transcontinental main rail line pass through the commu- nity of White River. The Sugar Zone property has a history of significant explora- tion, albeit intermittently, since 1969. The majority of the work was done in the vicinity of Dayohessarah Lake and the Sugar Zone area and follows the discovery of the huge Hemlo gold deposit in 1981. Hemlo Gold Mines discovered the Sugar Zone by surface pros - pecting in 1991, followed by trenching and diamond drilling between 1991 and 1994. The property was then explored by the Corona Gold/Harte Gold Joint Venture between 1998 and 2009 and subsequently Harte Gold after 2010. To date, there have been 687 holes drilled for a total of 217,876 metres. The 2017 drilling program was the largest undertaken so far with a total of 256 drill holes totalling128,243 metres. Harte Gold completed a 70,000-tonne underground bulk sam - pling program on the Sugar Zone in 2017. The program included about 960 metres of ramp development and 634 metres of hori- zontal drifting in mineralization on five levels at a 15-metre vertical spacing, to provide drilling access for longhole mining. Fifteen stopes were mined from development work completed on the 375, 360, 345, 330 and 315 levels. An extensive sampling and grade control program was also completed and the bulk sample material conveniently processed at Barrick's Williams Mine in the Hemlo camp. Overall, the combined development and production from the block model was estimated by Harte at a grade of 7.25 g/t gold compared to a processed and stockpile grade of 7.55 g/t gold, resulting in an underestimating of the grade by 0.30 g/t gold or 4.1%. In March of 2018, Harte announced the discovery of a signifi - cant 23-metre wide Footwall Zone parallel to and 50 metres east of the Middle Zone deposit. The Footwall Zone carries anomalous gold mineralization over its entire length with a high-grade sec - tion of 5.41 g/t over 7.66 metres, including 14.80 g/t over 2.12 metres. The Footwall Zone was initially discovered at the south end of the Sugar Zone Deposit in early 2017. The significant intersection in the Footwall Zone suggests an entirely new zone of broad mineralization that may stretch over a wide area. Stephen Roman, President and CEO of Harte Gold, notes that "This new discovery east of the Middle Zone has the potential to add significant new gold ounces to our recently updated resource of 1.5 million ounces. It is much wider than the Sugar Zone and as it was intersected at a relatively shallow depth, we feel it may continue to improve as we drill deeper." n Harte Gold heading to commercial production at Sugar Zone by David Duval Harte Gold's mill and related infrastructure at its Sugar Zone Project 60 km east of the Hemlo Gold Camp in northern Ontario. Photo courtesy Harte Gold Corp.

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