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Metallurgy
A process plant was designed for the Tulsequah Chief project to process massive sulphide mineralization at a rate of 2000 t/d. The process facility will consist of a primary crushing plant, conveyor corridors; mill feed storage bin, grinding and flotation plant, effluent treatment plant and backfill plant. The process plant will operate two shifts per day and 365 days per year with an overall availability of 92%. The process plant will produce copper, lead and zinc concentrates and gold-silver dore as outlined in the following table predicted metallurgical response.
Table 4. Predicted Metallurgical Response
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Product Wt (t) Assays Recoveries % ---------------------------------------------------------- Cu % Pb % Zn % Ag g/t Au g/t Cu Pb Zn Ag Au----------------------------------------------------------------------------Copper Conc 5.3 21.0 2.7 7.6 1217.5 20.8 89.0 11.8 6.0 75.0 44.0----------------------------------------------------------------------------Lead Conc 1.3 1.0 60.0 8.4 586.4 7.6 0.8 66.2 1.6 9.0 4.0----------------------------------------------------------------------------Zinc Conc 9.6 0.7 0.8 62.0 69.7 0.8 5.5 6.8 89.0 7.8 3.0----------------------------------------------------------------------------Pyrite Conc 28 0.1 0.3 0.4 19.2 0.5 1.9 6.8 1.7 6.1 5.0----------------------------------------------------------------------------Tailings 55.7 0.1 0.2 0.2 2.4 0.1 2.8 8.4 1.7 1.6 2.0----------------------------------------------------------------------------Feed 100 1.3 1.2 6.7 86 2.5 100 100 100 100 100--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dore Kg/100t feed 0.155 30% 70% 0.5 42.0----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Access and Transportation
A new 128 kilometer long, Forestry approved 5m wide road will be constructed from the end of the Warm Bay road, south of Atlin, BC, to the Tulsequah Chief Mine site. The concentrates produced during operations are anticipated to be trucked to the Skagway terminal facility where improvements to the facility are planned to handle the storage and transfer of Chieftain's concentrates. Supplies will be transported to the mine by road utilizing the backhaul portion of the trip.
Infrastructure
All surface buildings will be located in close proximity to the mine, including the mineral process building, a 210-person camp and kitchen/dining facility, a two-story administration/mine dry building, which includes the ambulance building, an LNG/diesel-generated power plant, and the maintenance/warehouse facility for surface equipment.
The mine will operate on varying rotating schedules including four days on/three days off, two weeks on/two weeks off, and two weeks on/one week off. The schedules reflect the various work schedules required to cover the tasks on site. A 1,050 m long airstrip has been constructed approximately 2 km north of the mine near Shazah Creek.
A 3.0 Mt capacity tailings facility is designed and will be constructed approximately 5 km north of the mine in the valley of Shazah Creek. De-pyritized tailings will be transported in the form of a dense slurry by pipe.
