Northgate Minerals has increased its estimate of the amount of gold and copper in a prospective underground mine in northern B.C.
The company resurrected the Kemess North gold and copper project as an underground mine last year, conducting a 16,000-metre drilling program to better define the resources.
Released this week, the new estimate pegs the indicated resources at the Kemess underground project at 165.5 million tonnes containing 2.6 million ounces of gold, 860.6 million pounds of copper and 9.2 million ounces of silver.
That's an improvement over a May 2010 estimate which showed a 121-million tonne resource containing 2.3 million ounces of gold and 819 million pounds of copper.
The new estimate represents an 18 per cent increase in resource tonnes, an 10 per cent increase in gold and a nine per cent increase in copper.
"We are very pleased with the results of the new resource estimate for Kemess Underground, which has exceeded our initial expectations and increased our confidence in this significant resource," said Northgate president and CEO Ken Stowe.
"In addition to increasing the gold and copper content of the resource, the 2011 drill results have identified a continuous, high-grade sector of the resource, which should allow us to enhance the value of the project if it can be scheduled for mining during the early years of production," said Stowe.
The company is expected to have a feasibility assessment of the project ready in the third quarter of this year.
While Northgate is determining whether to proceed with the underground mine, its existing Kemess South operation, 425 kilometres northwest of Prince George, is expected to come to a close this month.
About 350 people worked at the mine, some of them using Prince George as a base. Prince George was also a supply and service centre for the mine.
A federal environmental review panel rejected the Kemess North open pit project in Sept. 2007, saying the economic and social benefits provided by the project were outweighed by the risks of significant adverse environmental, social and cultural effects.
The central issue was First Nations' opposition to the use of six-kilometre Duncan Lake, called Amazay in their traditional language, as a dump for mining waste.
Toronto-based Northgate Minerals has already said the underground mine would not require the use of Duncan Lake. Instead, the waste from an underground operation at North Kemess would be placed in its existing South Kemess pit, already permitted as a mine waste storage area.
