Page 41 F r om c onc ept thr ough cl osur e Indus tryl eading e xpertise and pr oject de v el opment with the right peopl e in the right plac es fr ontend s tudies miner al and met allur gic al pr oc es s design open pit and under gr ound mine design surf ac e and under gr ound infr as tructur e engineering t ailings t echnol ogy and mine wat er management geot echnic al engineering and envir onment al servic es c ons truction and pr oject management email mining amecc om or visit amecc ommining M e e t o u r e x p e r t s a t T h e N o r t h e r n M i n e s E x p o 2 9 3 0 M a y Aus tr alia Br azil Canada Chil e P eru South Afric a UK USA AMEC0213MiningLifeindd 1 272013 51113 PM Page 41 DET OUR LAKE GOLD DEPOSIT Page 40 By Gregory Reynolds T oday in the light of the fact that a mine Placer Dome Inc closed will soon be Canada s lar gest gold produc er owned by Detour Gold Corporation has many industry observers wonder ing why the property got the reputa tion of being a dog The answer to that question is found in a December 1997 interview by a T immins Daily Press reporter with Placer Dome president and CEO John W illson He explained that Placer Dome s phi losophy was to fnd or acquire high grade lar ge reserve projects The De tour Lake Gold Mine that the compa ny began operating in 1993 no longer ft the profle and would be closed in 1999 T wo things could save the mine an increase in the gold price andor the company s exploration program fnding high grade ore At the time the mine had about 15 months of known reserves At the mine there was the main ore body and an area known as the QK Zone that proved a disappointment when they got under ground The grade wasn t what we had hoped for but there was a lot of gold he said The fact that there was a lot of low grade gold in the area was repeat ed by W illson several times during the interview He said the world price of gold then about US300 an ounce and in a steady declin e from an average of 384 over the previous three years was a key factor in the company s decision At 375 an ounce gold the mine could be proftable but at less than 300 it was not Being a big company with a lar ge overhead that had to be part of pro duction costs per ounce also played into decisions W illson said a small mining company with a few man agement personnel running a tight ship could make a proft with Detour whereas Placer Dome could not He cautioned however that even a small company would have problems if gold fell below 300 an ounce The average grade at Detour is four grams to the tonne 01 17 ounces of gold to the tonne and that is not good enough said W illson The mine was a highcost operation in that workers had homes elsewhere but lived in bunkhouses on site The province has a law preventing the de velopment of townsites at resource developments A provincial road linked the mine to the T own of Cochrane He mentioned that Placer Dome was a joint venture partner with Pelangio Larder Lake Mines Limited on an ad joining property and drill results were the same lots of low grade gold but scattered without consistency essen tially pods of gold Placer Dome had 65 per cent and PelangioLarder 35 per cent of the Fault Lake Property In the end the mine closed Placer Dome spent millions of dollars reha bilitating the mine property and Pel angio ended up owning a lar ge block of land as well as an option to buy the former mine Detour Gold Corporation founder Gerald Panneton looked at the drill logs and all the other known data in 2006 and came to the conclusion that the key to unlocking the wealth of the area was to link all the known depos its or pods together as there prob ably was just one huge ore body He was to be proven right aided by gold prices that hit undreamed of levels Placer Dome had no use for low grade small deposits at US300 an ounce gold Indus try L e ading T urnar ound Time E xpert Geochemis try Support Expert Client Services S tr ong T echnical P artnerships in Chemis try and Me tal lur gy C or eVie w er T echnology Bes t in the Busines s F or mor e in f orma tion scan this QR c ode or visit www alsglobalc om Phone 1 7055607225 F r om c onc ept thr ough cl osur e Indus tryl eading e xpertise and pr oject de v el opment with the right peopl e in the right plac es fr ontend s tudies miner al and met allur gic al pr oc es s design open pit and under gr ound mine design surf ac e and under gr ound infr as tructur e engineering t ailings t echnol ogy and mine wat er management geot echnic al engineering and envir onment al servic es c ons truction and pr oject management email mining amecc om or visit amecc ommining M e e t o u r e x p e r t s a t T h e N o r t h e r n M i n e s E x p o 2 9 3 0 M a y Aus tr alia Br azil Canada Chil e P eru South Afric a UK USA AMEC0213MiningLifeindd 1 272013 51113 PM DET OUR LAKE GOLD DEPOSIT