1911 Gold aims to restart Manitoba mine in 2026
1911 Gold Corp. [AUMB-TSXV] said it is continuing to work towards the goal of restarting the high-grade True North gold mine in Manitoba, with current plans for this to occur in late 2026. However, the company said the time frame could be accelerated should market conditions and exploration results merit a faster ramp up.
The announcement comes after the company released an update on the strategic plans for the advancement of the True North mine, including a 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate update.
1911’s portfolio includes 63,000 hectares within and adjacent to the Archean Rice Lake greenstone belt in Manitoba. It also owns the True North mine and mill complex at Bissett, Man. Other assets include the Apex gold project near Snow Lake, Man. And Denton-Keefer project near Timmins, Ont.
1911 President and CEO Shaun Heinrichs recently said the company has been working to develop a long-term strategy for the Rice Lake property. “We have leveraged our infrastructure to complete several key transactions in 2023 to support ongoing maintenance of the site and significantly reduce our holding costs,’’ he said.
He said the company was moving forward with the goal of advancing 1911 Gold towards production with the potential for multiple ore sources within the Rice Lake property.
“Our team’s diligent efforts in assessing and updating the geological model have significantly advanced our understanding of the True North mine,’’ Heinrichs said in a press release, Thursday. Using this updated, robust geological interpretation, we are actively working on prioritizing targets that have resource expansion potential within the existing mine footprint for follow up after completing the mineral resource estimate.’’
The True North Mine is estimated to contain an underground resource of 2.01 million tonnes of 7.41 g/t gold or 433,000 ounces of gold in the indicated category and 3.59 million tonnes of 5.79 g/t gold, containing 605,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category.
Using updated geological wireframes and validated drill database, 1911 Gold plans to update the resource by early August 2024, using an updated gold price and suitable cut-off grade. The updated estimate will use a validated drill hole database of 7,960 drill holes containing 1.53 million metres of drilling, 30,217 underground channel samples, containing 79,147 metres of sampling for a total of 483,668 assay results.
1911 was in the news recently when it named Gary O’Connor to its Board of Directors as Executive Chair. O’Connor is an experienced geologist with over 40 years in the mining industry. He was recently President and CEO of Moneta Gold Inc. He also worked as the company’s chief geologist. A former District Manager (1990-2000) with Freeport-McMoran Inc. [FCX-NYSE] in Indonesia, he distinguished himself by helping to uncover a major fraud committed by Bre-X Minerals with its alleged Busang “gold deposit” in Kalimantan, Indonesia.
On Thursday, 1911 Gold shares eased 10% or $0.01 to $0.09. The shares trade in a 52-week range of 14.5 cents and $0.06.