Mining News: Northern Neighbors: Brucejack issued key certificate

Pretium Resources Inc. March 27 said it has received an Environmental Assessment Certificate for its Brucejack gold project located some 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Stewart in northwestern British Columbia. The operation at Brucejack will not require the building of a tailings dam, which has become a point of contention since a dam failure in August 2014 at Imperial Metals Corp.’s Mount Polley copper-gold mine in central British Columbia. Instead, about half the tailings at Brucejack will be used as backfill for an underground mine, and the balance will be stored in Brucejack Lake, a 100-meter-deep body of water devoid of fish. The B.C. ministers of the Environment and Energy and Mines issued the certificate with conditions that have given them the confidence to conclude that a mine at Brucejack will be constructed, operated and decommissioned in a way that ensures no significant adverse effects are likely to occur. A federal review of the gold project is nearing completion, with a decision expected by spring. Pretium hopes to begin construction at Brucejack this summer and commercial production at the high-grade underground gold mine is targeted for 2017. Based on the results of a feasibility study completed in 2014, Brucejack is expected to produce an average of 504,000 ounces of gold a year over the first eight years and 404,000 ounces of gold a year over the 18-year mine life. Brucejack’s Valley of the Kings hosts 13.6 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 15.7 grams per metric ton (6.9 million ounces).

- Shane Lasley

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