The mild winter of 2024 was less than ideal for replenishing moisture in the forests or topping up water levels in rivers and lakes.
But the weather was great for building a gold mine, 160 kilometres southwest of Prince George.
As of March 31st, construction of the new Blackwater Gold mine being built by Artemis Gold Inc., of Vancouver was 73 per cent complete.
The project is fully funded and remains on schedule to produce its first pour in the second half of this year.
About $530 million has been spent, well within the parameters of the guided initial capital expenditure of $730-$750 million. That spending is expected to rise to $682 million by the end of June.
A majority of the uncommitted expenditures are related to owners’ costs and earthworks associated with mining pre-strip operations and construction of the tailings storage facility and soon-to-be-built structures.
“We have an exceptional team managing the development of the Blackwater Mine,” said Steven Dean, chairman and CEO of Artemis Gold.
“Execution is critical in all projects, and managing the day-to-day challenges that arise in building a mine of this scale and complexity is key to being successful,” he said. “We have an experienced group of people who are first-class problem solvers, ensuring we advance toward operational readiness and remain on track for first gold pour.
“The remainder of 2024 will be transformational for Artemis Gold as we make progress on the Blackwater Mine, a Tier 1 asset in a Tier 1 jurisdiction, into production.”
The lack of snow allowed easier access for mine infrastructure projects including the water management pond, central diversion system and the Davidson Creek diversion, which have all been completed.
Initial material placement for the tailings storage dam is in place, which will tie into the surrounding area to provide for optimal productivity during the summer.
By the start of April, 1.7 million hours of labour had been put into major works construction, with no longterm injury incidents and an all-injuries frequency rate of 87.68 per one million hours.
Contract work on the processing plant being conducted by Sedgman EPC was close to 84 per cent complete by the end of March. All engineering, design and procurement work has essentially been done.
Steel erection and conveyor installation is progressing and installation of mechanical equipment within the secondary and tertiary crushing circuits is now complete, along with the screening station, is now complete.
The ball mill, intensive leach reactor and the regeneration kiln are now installed and work has started on installation of the gravity concentrator. Pre-leach, carbon-in-leach and elution tanks are in place, and hydrotesting is underway.
Most of the concrete work has been done, including the primary crusher run-of-mine slab, crusher vault and ore stockpile reclaim tunnel. Construction of the reagents and mill buildings has begun, with installation of an overhead crane in place, and the main electrical room has been built.
Key to the $2.5 billion project will be a new 133-kilometre BC Hydro transmission line which will allow Blackwater to build one of the mining sector’s first fully-electric ore processing plants. The carbon-neutral setup will replace traditional diesel/propane fuelled processing and adds to the cost of construction but it will reduce the carbon footprint of the mine.
The transmission line right of way has been cleared and laydown areas for the power poles and camp facilities are ready. Poles and hardware deliveries will be sequenced to support the construction schedule.
The line will be built in two sections divided by the Nechako River. North of the river the new line will run for approximately 50 km, while the south segment is about 80 km long.
Upgrades are ongoing at BC Hydro’s Glenannan substation to gear up for the 25 kilovolt power distribution network. Hydro pole foundations are 65 per cent completed and placement of poles has begun.
Upgrades to the BC Hydro Glenannan substation are progressing to plan. Commissioning planning with BC Hydro is advancing as planned.
Assembly and commissioning of the owner’s mining fleet continues to advance. Two 400-tonne hydraulic backhoe excavators have been assembled at the site, along with six 240-tonne rigid-frame haul trucks and two large mining front-end loaders. The remaining pieces of heavy equipment needed to support initial operations are on-site, nearing completion.
The mine’s workforce remained constant through the first three months of 2024 at 320 employees, of which 20 per cent are women, 30 per cent identify as Indigenous, 50 per cent are from the North Central Interior and 80 per cent are B.C. residents.
The first people hired for the operations team during the winter are set to begin their jobs this spring. The company has a laboratory contract in place and all mill reagents have been tendered, with plans to finalize the contracts by the end of June.
Artemis has borrowed an additional $130 million under the project loan facility, bringing the loan total to $280 million, with an additional $5 million in interest costs through March 31.
The remaining Phase 1 capital expenditures will be between $207 million and $227 million.
