Page 10 Page 10 By Kevin V incent Speculation continues to swirl around the possibility of an extensio n to the life of mine for the worldfamous Kidd Creek base metals operation in T immins The deepest and most pro lifc base metal s mine in the world has a lengthy history of innovatio n which is fueling rumours that Kidd may con tinue production well past 2022 While the company s ofcial posi tion is that Kidd Creek will wind up under ground production in less than three years drill results from a deep exploration program are creating a buzz that while the mine s days are numbered those days perhaps years might be longer than expected Sources confrm to Mining Life that the company is reviewing encourag ing drill results that could deepen pro duction eforts by another 2000 feet well beyond the current 10000foot level In 201 1 compa ny ofcials braced the community that the life expectancy of Kidd would come to its conclusion by 2017 Not long afterwards the news came that the new closing date on the calendar would be 2022 The unique copper zinc orebody a replica of which has never been un covered anywhere else in the world has generally and loosely been de scribed as an hour glass Since its discovery in the 1950 s suc cessive Kidd owner operato rs have produced billions of dollarsworth of base metals commodities At least three Mining Life sources who preferred anonymity have sug gested the deep drilling program is so encouraging it could extend the life of mine out as far as 2028 That would be welcome news to the city of T immins and the surrounding area as it would also extend the com pany s hefty local payroll for another decade not to mention the company s sizable supplies and services budget estimated at approximately 100 mil lion annually One source puts it this way At cur rent rate s and market conditio ns Kidd is planned to stop mining under ground by mid to last quarter of 2022 At that stage all defned reserves would be de pleted The key phrase there is all defned reserves The question of course revolves around defned reserves The latest exploratory drill program which the company is keeping close to its chest implies Kidd may be ready to pene trate even deeper under ground into the bottom half of the hour glass That program has not been added to the defned reserves part of the ledger at least not yet That same source confrmed that A drill ing program underway is at tempting to defne further ore body continuation Even further If successful a con fdence improvement program could follow to determine the feasibility of mining at depth and the potential of a life of mine extension At this stage there is not enough data to predict if a mine extensi on was possible or to speculate on the number of years While that source is cautio nary a second source confrmed to Mining Life that the economics are on one level encouraging Y ears ago when the company was looking to extend the life of mine it conducted an 80 hole drill program that outlined what would become the D mine the deepest part of the operation which is referred to anecdotally as the bot tom tip of the upper half of the hour glass The frst fve holes of this latest ex ploration program according to a third source imply the orebody continues much deeper than anyone could imagine The engineering challenge boils down to whether it makes economic sense for the company to penetrate that new orebody Infrastructure in cluding the company s VOD or V en tilation on Demand system as well as its fberoptic communications system and automated loaders are already es tablished all positive mitigating fac tors that the company s Swiss owners will evaluate While company ofcials are guarded about releasing any public informa tion at this point the community continues to hold out hope that the news will be positive and that the life of mine may be extended in two to threeyear increments Page 10