Page 36 By Gregory Reynolds The Imerys T alc operation in the City of T imm ins has been around since 1974 but there need be no fears about its future as the mine has a re maining life of 30 years at the cur rent production rate The operation has two units the Penhorwood Mine 70 km west of the city and a concentrator micronizing facility in T immins That facility is located in the former Hollinger Gold Mine whose struc tures dominate the skyline from their central position on the edge of the Hollinger Park Imerys has 25 fulltime employees at the mine and 39 in the T immins plant Open pit mining is conducted on a seasonal basis in winter and talc magnesite ore is stockpiled in the open pit for use throughout the year Overburden stripping is carried out in summer months in advance of mining operations which use con tract miners and conventional open pit methods Ore is blasted and trucked to the pri mary crusher where it is reduced to Reserves for 30 years left at T immins talc mine minus4 inch size then conveyed and stacked into four grades on segregated stockpiles according to colour The concentrator plant operates year round and produces a dry talc con centrate Further crushing occurs ac cording to product requirements and cyclone and foatation processes are used to tailor the concentrate T ailings are transported hydraulically by pipeline and deposited in the nearby open pit of the former Reeves asbestos mine T alc is either trucked to a bulk loading facility at the Foleyet railroad siding or delivered to the T immins micronizing plant for further processing In 2012 the mill processed 660 tonnes per day with a grade of 484 talc Mill recovery was 58 talc A total of 66477 tonnes of talc con centrate was produced from 220048 tonnes milled Imerys comple ted 9093 metr es of dia mond drilling for ore defniti on on the deposit T alc is a surprisingly versatile and very functional mineral which possesses a unique combination of properties T alc is soft water repellent chemically in ert and highly platy Imerys T alc s industry experts have harnessed these properties to bring customers improved performance in a wide range of applications such as pa per paints plastics rubber ceramics agriculture food pharmaceuticals cosmetics and soap Imerys says its talc operations started more than 100 years ago as a cottage industry in the French Pyrenees Over the last century we have grown to become the world s leading talc producer employing 1000 people on fve continents and supplying around 15 per cent of global demand from nine mines and 15 processing plants throughout Australia Austria Bel gium Canada France Italy Japan Spain and the United States T oday the Imerys brand continues to represent the highest quality talc products on the market Ownership changed from Rio T into Minerals Luzenac Inc to Imerys in 201 1 The operation s history stretches back to 1974 when a small fotati on plant was built and commissioned to pro duce magnesium at the Penhorwood mine site This venture failed but in 1978 Steet ley Industries started producing talc instead used in paint plastics and other material The wet foated Penhorwood concen trate talc was transported to the T im mins micronizing plant to be ground to specifcation In 1988 Luzen ac plc bought Steetley T alc This was an important turning point in the operation s history For the frst time it belonged to a company that had talc as its main product W ith the acquisition came product de velopment sales and marketing sup port Imerys T alc is part of Imerys Group the world leader in mineral specialties for industry