Construction Underway at Quebec’s Newest Gold Mine

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Seven years after it purchased the closed Casa Berardi gold mine from TVX Gold, Aurizon Mines Limited is well on its way to a late 2006 gold production start up. TVX Gold closed the mine due to poor economics in 1997. The Casa Berardi project is located 95-kilometers north of La Sarre, Quebec in the Abitibi region of northwestern Quebec.

Infrastructure and underground mine construction activities began in 2004 and are expected to take at least 18 months to complete. Major components of the new west underground gold mine are nearing completion, including the sinking of an 810-meter deep shaft, as well as the construction of a new headframe and hoist building. Dumas Contracting (Timmins, Ontario) is performing the underground mine construction.

Ore will be transferred by truck five kilometers to the existing mill at the east mine. Work is just beginning to refurbish and expand the mill/concentrator from 1,800 tons per day up to 2,400 tons per day. This will involve the addition of a cyanication reactor and a carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit.

About 80% of the $70 million project cost will be for the underground mine development. The rest will be for the refurbishment of the mill/concentrator and other site infrastructure construction. The mine is projected to employ 200 when it becomes operational. Industrialinfo.com began tracking this project as part of its North American Industrial Database in 2000.

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