Page 41 F r om c onc ept thr ough cl osur e Indus try-l eading e xpertise and pr oject de v el opment with the right peopl e in the right plac es ? fr ont-end 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 @ amec.c om or visit: amec.c om/mining 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 AMEC0213_MiningLife.indd 1 2/7/2013 5:11:13 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 and/or 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 US$300 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 (0.1 17 ounces of gold to the tonne) and that is not good enough,” said W illson. The mine was a high-cost 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 Pelangio-Larder 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). 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F or mor e in f orma tion, scan this QR c ode or visit www .alsglobal.c om Phone: +1 705-560-7225 F r om c onc ept thr ough cl osur e Indus try-l eading e xpertise and pr oject de v el opment with the right peopl e in the right plac es ? fr ont-end 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 @ amec.c om or visit: amec.c om/mining 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 AMEC0213_MiningLife.indd 1 2/7/2013 5:11:13 PM DET OUR LAKE GOLD DEPOSIT