Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.: Goldex Mine

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Explosive production   Agnico-Eagle Mines LimitedÔÇÖs Goldex mine is unique in a number of ways, from its urban location to the techniques being used to reap the benefits of the low-grade gold ore deposit. Keith Regan learns from the mineÔÇÖs general manager and its engineering superintendent how a hybrid mining approach, along with record-setting underground blasts, have helped the mine be economical, safe and a good neighbor.   Late in 2009, the Goldex mine operation of Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. set a record when it detonated the largest known underground blast that impacted some 1.5 million metric tons (tonnes) of material. In March 2010, the mine was set to break its own record with a controlled blast of 1.8 million tonnes.  Impressive as those blasts sound, what makes them all the more challenging is the mineÔÇÖs location within the city limits of the northern Quebec city of Val-dÔÇÖOr. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre about a kilometer and a half from the Wal-Mart and two kilometers from a McDonaldÔÇÖs and a shopping center,ÔÇØ says mine general manager Yvon Sylvestre. ÔÇ£And weÔÇÖre just a stoneÔÇÖs throw from some residential neighbors, with houses as close as about 600 meters to the mine borders.ÔÇØ  Planning for, managing, controlling and carrying out those blasts in a safe way that doesnÔÇÖt negatively impact those neighbors is something the mine perfected with a lengthy ramp-up process that started with smaller explosions and used data from that activity to predict how the property would react to more intense seismic activity, says Marc Moffette, superintendent of engineering at the mine. ÔÇ£Over time we got to where we are very good at being able to predict the vibration levels around the mine,ÔÇØ Moffette says.  The blasts are part of a unique hybrid process at the Goldex mine that essentially uses surface mining productivity techniques in an underground setting. That approach helped make it economically feasible for Agnico-Eagle to commence production at the mine after years of exploration and false starts. ÔÇ£This deposit has been known for years, but due to its low-grade nature, it has never been able to be mined economically,ÔÇØ says Sylvestre.   Over the past three decades, the site had been explored on numerous occasions, with a ramp built in the 1970s, a shaft installed in the 1980s, and that effort expanded in the 1990s, each time only to have the owners flood the mine again because of economic realities. ÔÇ£It took some out-of-the-box thinking to make it possible. Adapting the ore body and its low-grade nature to the hybrid mining method is key to the success of this project. WeÔÇÖre essentially mining a big open pit underground.ÔÇØ  The solution uses bulk movement of the ore body and high-throughput processing rates to overcome the economic challenges of the relatively low-grade ore body. ÔÇ£The thinking in the past was always to high-grade the ore body zone, but weÔÇÖre taking on a bulk approach,ÔÇØ Sylvestre adds. ÔÇ£The whole method has been set to having the lowest possible mining costs.ÔÇØ The mine is seeing processing costs of between $20 and $30 per tonne, compared to conventional mining costs of up to $100 per tonne in underground settings. ÔÇ£Those other mines might have better revenue per tonne, but the bottom line is that net value with the mining costs taken into account.ÔÇØ  To help keep those costs down and to get more of the buried treasure to market while gold prices hover near all-time highs, the mine, which initially began operating in the spring of 2008, was recently expanded to handle 8,000 tonnes per day. Although blasting is scheduled to wind down by 2012, the mineÔÇÖs life is expected to extend to 2018. The expansion at Goldex is part of a larger push by Agnico-Eagle to boost gold production to meet surging worldwide demand. Overall, five internal mining expansion projects are underway or have been recently completed, with the result being that the mining company expects to boost gold production to between 1 million and 1.1 million ounces annually by the end of 2010 while expanding its reserve base to as much as 21 million ounces on its properties in Canada, the US, Finland and Mexico.  At Goldex, Moffette says, the high quality of the rock deposits on the property has helped make it possible to keep stope walls stable during extensive excavation and to use heavy equipment almost never seen in underground mine settings, including some of the largest excavators and rock crushers ever used underground. The mine is also designed to be as unobtrusive as possible to its neighbors, using an underground ventilation system and a surface footprint as small as possible. Ore is stockpiled beneath a dome that minimizes dust and noise. In addition, the decision was made early on to use a cyanide-free processing system, with a grinding gravity circuit system used in its place that poses less environmental threat to the area neighborhoods as well as a nearby river.  In addition to producing gold bullion on site, the mine also produces gold ore concentrate that is shipped to a sister operation at Laronde, which has a cyanide-based processing system in place. The result of that is tailings that can be safely reused and are in fact acid-neutralizing in nature. Through a partnership with the provincial government, Agnico-Eagle pipes those tailings some 24 kilometers to a former mining site known as Manitou. The basic nature of the tailings helps remediate high-acid-content soils on that property and will result in it being reclaimed and with new vegetation introduced over time. ÔÇ£We took the money we would have spent building our own tailings facility and invested it in helping to restore that site much faster and at a much lower cost to the community,ÔÇØ says Sylvestre. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre helping to undo the sin of a mining past. WeÔÇÖre doing our part in every way we can to help improve the image of the mining industry.ÔÇØ *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *