Sep 10 2019
Victoria Gold Corp., a leading gold exploration and development company, has provided an update relating to the transition of the Eagle Gold Project to an operating mine.
Phawat / Shutterstock
The construction of the Eagle Gold Project was concluded in early July and given to the Victoria operations team, on the revised budget and one month ahead of schedule.
Commissioning, which occurred through July and August months, is now substantively over. The operations management team of Victoria Gold Corp is completely staffed and in control of the site. Tracking is on schedule and operations ramp-up is ongoing. The initial gold pour has been planned for September 17th, 2019, and will be streamed live on Victoria Gold Corp.’s website.
I am extremely proud to announce that construction of Eagle came in ahead of schedule and on budget. It’s a tremendous accomplishment and speaks to the quality of the entire team. With construction and commissioning of Eagle now complete, we are keenly focused on ramping up operations and look forward to the first gold pour this month.
John McConnell, President and CEO, Victoria Gold Corp.
Videos and photographs of all Eagle Gold Mine facilities are available on Victoria Gold Corp.’s website.
Construction
Construction of the Eagle Gold Project was completed in July, which was one month ahead of schedule. Construction capital was concluded on the revised budget of C$487 million.
Commissioning
Commissioning activities are over and all subsystems and systems have been handed over to the Victoria operations team from the EPCM team. Construction/commissioning contractors and the commissioning team have moved from the location.
Safety
Victoria Gold Corp. is proud of, and is intensely focused on, its’ ongoing dedication to both safety and environmental stewardship. Together with the construction and new mine operations, more than 1.7 million hours have been worked since the previous Lost Time Incident (LTI). Over 160,000 hours have been worked without the LTI since the latest initiation of mine operations.
Mine Operations
The Eagle pit yielded more than 1 million tons of ore, which is 60% before the deadline for 2019. A substantial part of the material on the boundaries of the Eagle deposit—that were earlier defined as waste—was identified to be ore. This was achieved by assaying the production drill cuttings as part of the grade-control program. The tons and grade reporting within the deposit are corresponding well with real mining results and the reported resource estimate.
With the hastening of the construction schedule, more than 3 million tons of ore will be transported to the heap leach pad by the end of 2019.
Processing Operations
Almost 700,000 tons of Eagle ore have been arranged on the heap leach pad. The residual 300,000 tons of ore mined so far have been stockpiled and are vigorously being used to speed up extra ore to the heap leach pad in 2019. In addition, ore leaching activities are ongoing and gold in solution is now being loaded onto carbon in the fully operational gold recovery plant.
Operations Team
All key supervisors and operations management team members are in place. The remaining operations team is being on-boarded with a present headcount of about 230 operations staff, which monitors well to the ramp-up plan. Yukon residents, including many citizens from the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun (FNNND), make up around 50% of the operations personnel. FNNND is the Traditional Territory in which Victoria Gold Corp. operates.
Mayo to McQuesten Power Transmission Line Upgrade
On September 5th, 2019, the Governments of Yukon and Canada announced funding which would be used to replace a 31-km section of the Mayo-McQuesten transmission line with a fresh higher capacity line to support upcoming developments in the area.
Permitting Update
In line with the application made under the Water Act as formerly announced, Victoria Gold Corp. has received an amended Water Use License.