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. To date in the fourth quarter of 2009, the Mill has continued to operate at approximately 800 tonnes per day with the secondary circuit expected to come on stream as production volumes increase. As of December 1, 2009, the Company had poured close to 5,000 ounces of gold.
Plans are now in place to expand the Bell Creek Mill in 2010 to a total capacity of 3,000 tpd at a cost of close to $30 million.
