A Canadian mining company is about to begin test mining at its site at Million Mountain, Lower Puruni Region shortly.
Sacre-Coeur Minerals said last week that preparations for test mining at Million Mountain are nearing completion. In a press release, the company said that fabrication and set-up work for its alluvial gold test mining plant at the Million Mountain Alluvial Zone 2 is almost complete. The Million Mountain project is located in the Lower Puruni Region of Guyana.
Sarce-Coeur is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of properties for the potential mining of gold, metals and diamonds in South America. The company’s initial focus is on its gold properties in Guyana. The company presently has an interest in approximately 1,000 square kilometres of mineral properties in Guyana, including the Million Mountain property.
According to the release, importation of plant equipment and supplies for the program was effected on a duty- and VAT-free basis in August this year. Since then clearing and pre-production stripping of the initial mining area was started and has been completed. The initial area prepared should provide about three months’ production at the anticipated target rate of 1,000 cubic metres per day. Site preparation and expansion will continue on an ongoing basis commensurate with production, it said.
The company noted that the wash plant/sluice is essentially complete, with only a few small details still left. The remaining details should be done by this month end. The gold refinery is under construction and should be completed next month. The gravel pump skid and the fresh water pump skid have been completed, tested and are now functioning. The gravel pump skid, wash plant and water pump skid will be moved across the river from the construction site to the mining site, the company said. At the processing facility the amalgamator is assembled and set on its base. Testing is due to be undertaken shortly. The construction of the site’s support infrastructure is also progressing, with the ramps for the ferry crossing and the road to the mining area all complete.
The release stated that the contract for site security from an independent, professional security service is complete and scheduled to start in November. The agreement for helicopter transport of the gold from the project site to Georgetown and attendant armoured car service pickup from the helicopter for delivery to the point of sale is in progress, and should be in place during November, it said.
The company stated that all remaining tasks are now expected to be complete by November 30. Commissioning and debugging of the equipment should be achieved in approximately two weeks following start-up, with commercial production targeted before year-end, it added.
“Preparations for our alluvial test mining program at Million Mountain have been progressing rapidly and we are excited about the upcoming prospects for the program.” Irwin Olian, CEO of the Company was quoted as saying.
At the Million Mountain project in Guyana Sacre-Coeur is assessing nine alluvial gold zones within the Puruni river paleochannel. In June, the junior exploration company confirmed that it had already completed 83 test pits spaced approximately 100 meters apart along grid lines located 160 meters from each other. The results showed that a gold bearing alluvial sand and gravel resource target stretched 1.66 kilometres by 0.80 kilometres.
