Construction of the Greenstone Gold open-pit mine, outside Geraldton, is more than 90 per cent complete.
That’s the word from Equinox Gold, the Vancouver mine developer, in its latest newsletter and investor presentation.
With almost all equipment installed, General Manager Eric Lamontagne said pre-commissioning activities are underway by the piping, electrical and instrumentation teams to test and check individual systems.
“Hot” commissioning, in the run-up to commercial production, begins in early 2024.
The company hasn’t released an approximate date on the first gold pour but it will sometime during the first half of next year.
The pit is four kilometres south of the town of Geraldton, at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway 11 and Provincial Highway 584. Highway 11 had to be realigned around the pit. That section of road is now open to traffic.
The deposit has a mine life of 15 years with more than than five million ounces of gold expected to be produced in that span.
Among the major construction milestones passed recently include the commissioning of the site’s power plant. This facility contains six natural-gas powered piston engines. Thermal energy will be recovered from these engines with a glycol distribution loop providing heat to the processing building and a truck shop.
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On the mining side, pre-production mining has been ramping up with 12.2 million tonnes of material moved so far. About 800,000 tonnes of being stockpiled for processing for the mine's start up. The rest is earmarked as waste rock and will be used in construction work around the site.
This mine site is situated in the area of the former Hardrock, MacLeod-Cockshutt and Mosher underground mines, which operated from the late 1930s until about 1970, producing more than two million ounces of gold.
Site rehabilitation of those former operations is part of the development.
A new water treatment plant on the mine site treats water from precipitation as well as seepage from old mine tailings in the area, and from the underground workings of these old mines.
Previously, water from old tailings and the underground mine seeped straight in Kenogamisis Lake. Now, the water is treated first before being discharged into the lake’s southwest arm.