Renewed exploration is underway at the former Puffy Lake mine site outside Sherridon, part of a plan to eventually restart the long-idle gold operation, a junior miner announced.
In a January news release, Toronto-based Min-nova Corp said camp mobilization was underway with drilling expected to commence in the near future.
Minnova, which has renamed Puffy Lake the
PL mine, said a key goal is
to infill drill on the PL deposit to upgrade and expand the existing resource.
This would form the basis of a new guideline-compliant resource estimate that in turn would form the basis of pre-feasibility study, the company said.
The exploration work also aims to drill test high-priority, near-surface exploration targets that are associated with high-grade gold mineralization to discover additional gold resources, Minnova said.
As part of the initiative, Minnova has hired experienced geologist
Chris Buchanan to oversee the geology and drilling program and advance the company’s resource upgrade and property-wide discovery initiative.
Minnova president and CEP Gorden Glenn said Buchanan’s arrival is the first step in a plan to ultimately take the PL mine into production.
Minnova provided no firm date as to when that might happen. In January 2015, Glenn said reopening the mine would cost about $26 million – funds the company did not have.
The company has completed an updated preliminary economic assessment on the site. The assessment suggested the mine still had another 10-plus years of life.
The mine, located 65 km northeast of Flin Flon, produced over 28,000 ounces of gold in 1988 and 1989 before closing due to poor economics.
