GOLD MILLING: Anaconda plans Pine Cove mill upgrade

NEWFOUNDLAND — Toronto's Anaconda Mining has approved funds to upgrade and expand the Pine Cove mill near Baie Verte. Throughput will be increased to at least 700 t/d. The Gekko concentrator will be replaced with a new primary ball mill and flotation circuit. The existing ball mill will become a concentrate regrind mill. The concentrate will be leached to recover gold.

Anaconda recently bid on and bought a 3.0- by 4.25-metre Marcy mill from Bluenote's Caribou mine and mill. This unit will become the primary mill.

Cost of the upgrade and expansion is expected to be $2.7 million (including a 30% contingency). No major changes or relocation to existing plant equipment other than pump upgrades will be required. Money for the upgrade will come from the cash flow generated by toll processing ore from Crew Gold's Nugget Pond gold mine. Since toll milling began at the end of June 2009, the Pine Cove mill has treated more than 40,000 tonnes or ore with an average feed grade of 3.2 g/t Au. Gold recoveries have averaged slightly better than 93%, and 4,000 oz of gold have been recovered.

The Pine Cove mine is in the extended commissioning phase. The deposit contains probable reserves of 2.3 million tonnes grading 2.76 g/t Au.

A gallery of photos from the Pine Cove project is posted at www.AnacondaMining.com.