Post by swampdog on May 14, 2008 15:03:40 GMT -6
An excellent article on the business of diamond mining in the Fort a la Corne area. You will also notice the time that it takes to get a mine to be fully functioning. In reading about the Ekati mine (that's a different area than FALC) they are producing 13,000 diamonds per day. So this mining area has a long ways to go to get to that kind of production. None the less it is exciting for those in the diamond mining business.
Swamp
Shore Gold updates diamond exploration in Fort a la Corne
Shore Gold Inc., held an informational meeting May 7, with guest speaker Eric Cline, vice-president of corporate affairs at Shore Gold.
By Melissa Mangelsen
Journal Staff
Wednesday May 14, 2008
Guest speaker Eric Cline, vice-president of corporate affairs at Shore Gold addresses the crowd May 7 at an information meeting.
Brenda Kulpa/Nipawin Journal
Shore Gold updates diamond exploration in Fort a la Corne
By Melissa Mangelsen
Journal Staff
Shore Gold Inc., held an informational meeting May 7, with guest speaker Eric Cline, vice-president of corporate affairs at Shore Gold.
It's been over 17 years that the diamond exploration has started out at Fort a la Corne and it has been a positive to Nipawin and area.
"Whatever would be good for Nipawin would be good for us too. Shore Gold wants to see the development of a diamond mine in the area and of course the community wants to see that too because of the jobs and economic activity that it will bring," said Cline.
The diamond exploration is 50 kilometres from Nipawin and close to Tisdale, Melfort, Smeaton, Choiceland, Prince Albert and other communities.
"The point is that we're in the middle of a settled area. Fort a la Corne forest is really an island forest surrounded by farms to the north and to the south. There's an infrastructure of provincial highways, grid roads, housing and businesses that we deal with," said Cline.
Other mines are more difficult to get to and aren't given the option to live in an attractive community like Nipawin and work at the mine. Many mine workers have to be flown into remote locations, which increases costs a lot.
Right now Shore Gold is spending a lot of money on exploration.
"Bare in mind we don't want to just spend money on exploration because that's just money we're putting into the ground. We have no revenue because we're not a mining company yet, but we hope to be," explained Cline.
Shore Gold, currently, is considered an exploration company, however, the level of activity from this exploration year will be $95 million that will be spent on exploration in the Fort a la Corne forest.
"You can imagine that benefits the community in a variety of ways because we have contracts, employees and so on," said Cline.
In addition to contracting with businesses in Nipawin and area they also have people coming to work everyday. Choiceland has 18 people, Nipawin has 10 people, there are 17 people in Prince Albert as well as workers from Smeaton, Shipman, Snowden and so on.
"Our activities benefit not just those of us in Saskatoon at the head office, but a long list of small towns, contractors and businesses," said Cline.
One thing Shore Gold has done is sought what they can in the region within local businesses. They believe if something can be done economically and competitively in the area then their objective is to access the service from the area. They have been successful with that belief and will continue that as they move forward.
Shore Gold has heard the concerns about the time it has taken to get this far, but with mining it takes time to move forward.
"If you develop a mine, which would undoubtedly be an open pit mine, the company would be required to spend somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion to develop that," said Cline. A fully operational mine would also include a processing facility to take the kimberlite and separate the diamonds out of the kimberlite before the diamonds are put on the market.
The average time of any mining operation is about 10 years in exploration. For diamond mining it tends to be about 15 years because the company has to know they're right before they spend the money.
"To us in our everyday lives, it seems like a long time, but it's actually not unusual at all in a mining sense. We don't want to be just an exploration company, we're just spending money and we don't have any revenue. We're just as anxious as everyone in the community to get a mine going so that we can have the return on our investors and investments," said Cline.
Shore Gold is very optimistic and hopeful that they will develop a mine, but they don't know that they will be able to for sure. Cline says they are going to try their best.
There are many kimberlites in the Fort a la Corne forest. Most of their work has been done on one kimberlite called the Star kimberlite, which is now complete.
Shore Gold is now working on the Orion kimberlite.
"Many millions of dollars have been spent on that Star kimberlite," said Cline. The next step is to publish the resource estimate, which will be coming out soon. Also, later in the year a reserve estimate will also come out, which explains the percentage of resource the experts (geologists and engineers) felt could be taken out of that resource and if profit can be made from that.
The Orion kimberlite is a couple of years behind the Star kimberlite.
So far Shore Gold has recovered 10,829 carats of diamonds from almost 71,000 tonnes from the underground bulk sample. Some of the stones that have been recovered in the process are very large, the largest one being 49.5 carats and some of the others around the 20-carat size.
The average price is about $170 per tonne and different parts of the Star kimberlite have produced diamonds that are up to $300 per tonne. Even the $97 and $99 dollar values are above the world average of $67 per tonne.
All the diamonds that are being produced belong to the Crown (provincial government), because they are an exploration company so they don't have a mining licence, which would allow them to take ownership.
Cline said when you have a mine it doesn't just benefit the company, it benefits the many companies that exist in the province.
"When you develop your mining sector you're going to develop a lot of good jobs, not just at the mine, but across the area. Some of those jobs are here in Nipawin at the exploration stage," said Cline.
The mining industry is the highest average paid industry in the province. The average wage paid in the mining industry in Saskatchewan is $60,000/per employee.
"That's much higher than most industries. If you have a mining sector, which Saskatchewan does, it's going to benefit the community in a big way," said Cline.
Also with the exploration is a huge amount of gravel. It's believed that there is a hundred feet of overburden that's on top of the kimberlite. The gravel, like every resource in the province belongs to the Crown. Just because Shore Gold dug up the gravel doesn't mean that they have the right to own or sell the gravel. They would need a licence from the Crown and pay the Crown royalties.
To ship gravel is expensive, and Cline said he hopes to see the gravel
become available to the RMs, towns and cities in this region.
Shore Gold will hold another meeting in six-months for an update.
www.nipawinjournal.com/News/400535.html
Swamp
Shore Gold updates diamond exploration in Fort a la Corne
Shore Gold Inc., held an informational meeting May 7, with guest speaker Eric Cline, vice-president of corporate affairs at Shore Gold.
By Melissa Mangelsen
Journal Staff
Wednesday May 14, 2008
Guest speaker Eric Cline, vice-president of corporate affairs at Shore Gold addresses the crowd May 7 at an information meeting.
Brenda Kulpa/Nipawin Journal
Shore Gold updates diamond exploration in Fort a la Corne
By Melissa Mangelsen
Journal Staff
Shore Gold Inc., held an informational meeting May 7, with guest speaker Eric Cline, vice-president of corporate affairs at Shore Gold.
It's been over 17 years that the diamond exploration has started out at Fort a la Corne and it has been a positive to Nipawin and area.
"Whatever would be good for Nipawin would be good for us too. Shore Gold wants to see the development of a diamond mine in the area and of course the community wants to see that too because of the jobs and economic activity that it will bring," said Cline.
The diamond exploration is 50 kilometres from Nipawin and close to Tisdale, Melfort, Smeaton, Choiceland, Prince Albert and other communities.
"The point is that we're in the middle of a settled area. Fort a la Corne forest is really an island forest surrounded by farms to the north and to the south. There's an infrastructure of provincial highways, grid roads, housing and businesses that we deal with," said Cline.
Other mines are more difficult to get to and aren't given the option to live in an attractive community like Nipawin and work at the mine. Many mine workers have to be flown into remote locations, which increases costs a lot.
Right now Shore Gold is spending a lot of money on exploration.
"Bare in mind we don't want to just spend money on exploration because that's just money we're putting into the ground. We have no revenue because we're not a mining company yet, but we hope to be," explained Cline.
Shore Gold, currently, is considered an exploration company, however, the level of activity from this exploration year will be $95 million that will be spent on exploration in the Fort a la Corne forest.
"You can imagine that benefits the community in a variety of ways because we have contracts, employees and so on," said Cline.
In addition to contracting with businesses in Nipawin and area they also have people coming to work everyday. Choiceland has 18 people, Nipawin has 10 people, there are 17 people in Prince Albert as well as workers from Smeaton, Shipman, Snowden and so on.
"Our activities benefit not just those of us in Saskatoon at the head office, but a long list of small towns, contractors and businesses," said Cline.
One thing Shore Gold has done is sought what they can in the region within local businesses. They believe if something can be done economically and competitively in the area then their objective is to access the service from the area. They have been successful with that belief and will continue that as they move forward.
Shore Gold has heard the concerns about the time it has taken to get this far, but with mining it takes time to move forward.
"If you develop a mine, which would undoubtedly be an open pit mine, the company would be required to spend somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion to develop that," said Cline. A fully operational mine would also include a processing facility to take the kimberlite and separate the diamonds out of the kimberlite before the diamonds are put on the market.
The average time of any mining operation is about 10 years in exploration. For diamond mining it tends to be about 15 years because the company has to know they're right before they spend the money.
"To us in our everyday lives, it seems like a long time, but it's actually not unusual at all in a mining sense. We don't want to be just an exploration company, we're just spending money and we don't have any revenue. We're just as anxious as everyone in the community to get a mine going so that we can have the return on our investors and investments," said Cline.
Shore Gold is very optimistic and hopeful that they will develop a mine, but they don't know that they will be able to for sure. Cline says they are going to try their best.
There are many kimberlites in the Fort a la Corne forest. Most of their work has been done on one kimberlite called the Star kimberlite, which is now complete.
Shore Gold is now working on the Orion kimberlite.
"Many millions of dollars have been spent on that Star kimberlite," said Cline. The next step is to publish the resource estimate, which will be coming out soon. Also, later in the year a reserve estimate will also come out, which explains the percentage of resource the experts (geologists and engineers) felt could be taken out of that resource and if profit can be made from that.
The Orion kimberlite is a couple of years behind the Star kimberlite.
So far Shore Gold has recovered 10,829 carats of diamonds from almost 71,000 tonnes from the underground bulk sample. Some of the stones that have been recovered in the process are very large, the largest one being 49.5 carats and some of the others around the 20-carat size.
The average price is about $170 per tonne and different parts of the Star kimberlite have produced diamonds that are up to $300 per tonne. Even the $97 and $99 dollar values are above the world average of $67 per tonne.
All the diamonds that are being produced belong to the Crown (provincial government), because they are an exploration company so they don't have a mining licence, which would allow them to take ownership.
Cline said when you have a mine it doesn't just benefit the company, it benefits the many companies that exist in the province.
"When you develop your mining sector you're going to develop a lot of good jobs, not just at the mine, but across the area. Some of those jobs are here in Nipawin at the exploration stage," said Cline.
The mining industry is the highest average paid industry in the province. The average wage paid in the mining industry in Saskatchewan is $60,000/per employee.
"That's much higher than most industries. If you have a mining sector, which Saskatchewan does, it's going to benefit the community in a big way," said Cline.
Also with the exploration is a huge amount of gravel. It's believed that there is a hundred feet of overburden that's on top of the kimberlite. The gravel, like every resource in the province belongs to the Crown. Just because Shore Gold dug up the gravel doesn't mean that they have the right to own or sell the gravel. They would need a licence from the Crown and pay the Crown royalties.
To ship gravel is expensive, and Cline said he hopes to see the gravel
become available to the RMs, towns and cities in this region.
Shore Gold will hold another meeting in six-months for an update.
www.nipawinjournal.com/News/400535.html