Gold mines give new look to Saskatchewan’s economy

Hold in Saskatchewan usually conjures up the image of wheat fields and magnificent sunsets, but for Claude Resources Inc. of Saskatoon, the most beautiful gold on the horizon is coming from its Seabee gold property, located about 125 kilometres northeast of the Town of La Ronge, Saskatchewan and about 150 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

The Seabee operation is Saskatchewan’s oldest and largest gold mine, producing over 995,000 ounces of gold since it was founded in 1991. It is located within a 14,400-hectare property on Provincial Crown land and is accessible primarily by fixed wing aircraft to a 1,275-metre-long airstrip. Heavy equipment and bulk supplies are trucked to the site via a 60-kilometre winter road from Brabant Lake on Highway 102 from January to March.

Two zones currently being mined are accessed by a 3.4 by 4.5 metre ramp to the 1200 metre level at the Seabee Mine and by a 4.0 by 5.0 metre ramp to the 150-metre level at the Santoy 8 site.

At the Seabee Mine, the shaft and hoist provides ore and waste transport to surface from as deep as the 600-metre level. A second extension of the shaft will reach the 980-metre level. As much as 1050 tonnes per day of ore and waste are removed to the mine’s ore and waste pass system and hoisted to surface with the ore then conveyed to the mill.

At the Santoy 8 mine, a shallow orebody is accessed via decline from surface and is hauled via an all-season surface road to the Seabee mill. The mill process consists of a three-stage crushing circuit, a two-stage grinding circuit, followed by cyanide leaching.

The leached gold is collected in a carbon-in-pulp circuit, stripped using mild caustic and collected on stainless steel mesh cathodes by Electrowinning. The product from Electrowinning is refined into dore bars in a bullion furnace power by electricity from Saskatchewan Power Corporation’s nearby provincial grid.

Brian Skanderberg, Vice-president of Exploration for Claude Resources, says the mines are both narrow vein underground operations which (at December 31, 2011) had approximately 2,059,000 tonnes of proven and probable reserves at 5.37 g/t Au and an additional 410,900 tonnes of measured and indicated resources at 5.35 g/t Au per tonne and 4,193,200 tonnes of inferred resources at 6.48 g/t Au.

On August 7th and 8th, the company celebrated the pouring of its its one millionth ounce of gold. This is a historic milestone for both the company and all of its past and present employees. Neil McMillan, President and CEO, said “It’s a wonderful accomplishment for our employees that have made this happen.”

What is most exciting for the company’s management is the future of the Seabee Gold Operation. There is currently 1.3 million ounces of gold in reserve and resources and Brian Skanderbeg is confident that there is more gold to be found on the Seabee property. McMillan says “We’re just now getting to the point where we can start to see the doubling of our production there over the next four to five years. We have the ounces already identified and we have the infrastructure.”