TIMMINS - A Matheson-area gold mine developer wants to sift through the tailings of the historic Hollinger Mine in Timmins to look for leftover gold.
STLLR Gold is heralding its Hollinger tailings project as a “game-changing” and “strategic” opportunity that the Toronto company believes can yield significant amounts of untouched gold that can be reprocessed very cheaply and deliver some cash.
The tailings site, located southeast of the city, contains 50 million to 60 million tonnes of waste material from the underground portion of the Hollinger Mine, which produced 19 million ounces of high-grade gold in a run that lasted from 1910 to 1968.
STLLR (formerly known as Moneta Gold) is looking to finance its Tower Gold Project, 100 kilometres east of Timmins in the Matheson area, and the Colomac project in the Northwest Territories. The Tower project consists of a deposit that's being proposed for an open-pit mine. It contains 11 million ounces of gold in the indicated and inferred categories.
In a news release from last week, STLLR plans to conduct a “tailings characterization program” at the Hollinger site during this quarter with the intent of producing a mineral resource estimate.
“After months of preparation, we are now set to quantify its value,” said company president-CEO Keyvan Salehi, in a statement.
To reprocess those tailings, provincial permits and approvals will be required, which should be easy considering changes made to Ontario's Mining Act to recover minerals from mine waste.
“Recent updates to the Mining Act could position the project as a near-term cash flow opportunity at current gold prices, while furthering our environmental commitment to reclaiming this historical site," added Salehi.
“Based on our findings, we will move forward with a mineral resource estimate and, if justified, a preliminary economic assessment.”
STLLR’s news release didn’t contain any information on when the company acquired the tailings property and if it's in a stable environmental state. An email query to the company's investor relations person did not produce an immediate response.
The company said there's been advancements in technology to recover the gold sitting within the tailings and it can be reprocessed with a minimal upfront capital investment. There are underutilized mills in the Timmins area that would gladly take in and process this material.
STILLR said this should encourage other mining companies to remediate these legacy sites.