Bell Creek Mill
Lake Shore Gold acquired the 1,500 tonne per day Bell Creek Mill, along with the Bell Creek Mine, from the Porcupine Gold Mines Joint Venture, a joint venture between Goldcorp Canada Ltd. and Kinross Gold Corporation, in December 2007. The Mill and Mine were previously operated from 1986 to 1991 and, over this period, produced approximately 112,739 ounces of gold.
The Bell Creek mill is a conventional gold mill circuit, involving crushing and grinding, gravity and leaching, followed by a “Carbon-In-Pulp” (“CIP”) process for gold recovery. The mill also includes associated buildings and surface infrastructure, offices and an approved tailings area. The 1,500 tonne per day facility had been on care and maintenance since 2002. Refurbishing of the mill was completed at a capital cost, and on a schedule, significantly less than would be expected for the construction of a new greenfield facility. At the beginning of 2009, the mill had been refurbished with an initial capacity of 800 tonnes per day and was refurbished to its current full capacity of 1,500 tonnes per day near the end of the third quarter of 2009. During 2009, a total of 7,700 ounces of gold was produced mainly from development material from Timmins Mine. This production was in line with a revised target of 7,500 ounces for the year.
During the first quarter of 2010, the mill processed a total of 34,733 tonnes at a grade of 2.0 gpt, primarily from the lower grade upper level stopes at the Timmins Mine and to a lesser extent from advanced exploration activities at Bell Creek. A total of 2,154 ounces at a recovery rate of 96.5% was achieved. Production from the Timmins Mine will increase significantly by the end of the second quarter with the completion of the shaft change over and commencement of pre-production development and the attainment of commercial production during the fourth quarter of 2010
A Phase One detailed engineering study to expand the milling capacity to 2,000 tonnes per day (“tpd”) was implemented during March 2010. Procurement of the required equipment to complete this expansion had largely been completed by the end of May 2010, including sourcing and acquiring a ball mill of adequate capacity to allow for an ultimate Phase Two expansion to 3,000 tpd later in 2011. Installation of the equipment for the Phase One expansion will commence during the summer of 2010 with the expansion to 2,000 tpd scheduled for completion during the fourth quarter of the year.
