Qubec: Malartic-Sud Breathes New Life Into Croinor Gold Mine

The economics of gold mining are very much at the whim of the metal price. Small deposits such as Croinor near Val-d’Or, Que., are only viable when prices rise above a certain point. So Exploration Malartic-Sud Inc. spent years studying the property and, with recent strong gold prices, successfully developed a new open pit.

Malartic-Sud acquired an interest in the Croinor property in 1998 and began the first of a series of maps, tests, surveys and estimates. By the end of last year, the measured and indicated resources stood at 2.5 million tonnes grading 3.46 g/t Au. The most recent metallurgical tests were favourable.

Malartic-Sud had only two details to settle. Earlier this year, the company acquired all of the mineral properties belonging to Huntington Exploration, which had been its partner at Croinor. Now Malartic-Sud holds 100% interest. Then it struck a deal with Richmont Mines to have its Croinor ore processed at Richmont’s Camflo mill. A bulk sample treated there in February averaged 97.4% gold recovery by direct cyanidation. When the contract was settled in July 2004 for Camflo to treat 65,000 tonnes of ore during the last four months of this year, Malartic-Sud gave the go-ahead to begin mining the Croinor deposit.

Norascon was hired to carry out all the work related to the open pit development and mining on a turn-key basis. The Amos, Que.-based company will do the drilling, blasting, excavation, crushing and transportation of the ore to the mill.

Val-d’Or’s own Ross Finlay 2000 has been retained to evaluate underground redevelopment options to recover 415,000 tonnes of ore that lies outside the pit plan. The original Croinor shaft was sunk in 1939, but an access ramp from the bottom of the pit may be the most economical approach these days.