Conceptual Mine Plan

This page will be used to provide a conceptual mine plan based on information known to date.

*Information in this current blog is based on information obtained up to mid 2018 and should be considered legacy at this time and should no longer be relied upon.*

There are a lot of key questions still to come for Chidliak (eg. mill production rate). However, there is a lot of information known to date with more coming in as more drilling and bulk sample results are provided. There is enough right now to come up with a conceptual mine plan.

Mine Phase 1 will consist of only Open pit's down to 250 metres...maybe even deeper. No underground is considered right now, but will be included in a later phase.

Conceptual mine plan:

Phase 1

A small pit on top of CH-7 will be mined to get all of Domain 5 (highest grade material). There will be some residual material from the other domains, but it should be a relatively shallow and tight pit. All material,including the other domains will go through the mill.

Phase 2

CH-6 will be mined to 250 or even 300 metres deep. KimL is the material in the inferred category grading 2.58 cpt.  This makes up 80% of the kimberlite body. The material (KimOther) that is not KimL and is included in the TFFE material has a lower grade of around 1 to 1.5 cpt. The KimL is of such high value, it needs to use the full capacity of the mill. The KimOther material will be stockpiled for later use. The open pit will also intersect CH-20 in the pit walls. This could be another 500,000 to 1 million tonnes of incidential material  and has huge potential. Depending on the value of this material, it will either go directly in the mill or be stockpiled as well.

Phase 3

An extended open pit is mined that focuses distinctly on Domain 4. This will be a pit that goes down to 250+ metres. Domain 4 competes with Domain 2 for largest tonnage amount at CH-7. A lot of Domain 2 material will be blended into the blasting and this will also go in the mill...however the ratio will still be more Domain 4 than Domain 2 to get the best grade into the mill. The smaller Domains 1 and 3 will get mined and put in the mill through this process by default. Blending of stockpiles from Phase 2 can be done during this phase if it makes sense...there may be some mill considerations that need adjusting..so this stockpile might have to wait.

Phase 4

Now that Domain 4 is exhausted from the open pit portion, a large push back into the remaining domain 2 material will occur and this will now feed the mill for a few years.

Phase 5

An open pit at CH-44 will be mined to 200 to 250 metres deep.

Phase 6

Open pits at CH-45, CH-46, CH-1 and CH-31. Order will depend on what kimberlite has the highest value.

Phase 7

During the open pit phases from above, exploration will be completed deeper into CH-6 and also the other kimberlites. The priority will be CH-6 and this will lead to an underground mine to be sent to the mill.This phase might go a lot sooner as it could add huge NPV to the project ahead of the other phases. The string of pearls will be able to use this same underground infrastructure to mine some additional material.

Phase 8

An underground mine will be shared among CH-7, CH-44, CH-45, CH-46. These kimberlites are fairly close to each other and can share key infrastructure like ventilation raises and a main central ramp. Other underground mines will be considered as well (CH-1, CH-31)

Phase 9

By the time this phase arrives, there might be over 100 kimberlites found on the property and one or more of those kimberlites might be added to the mine plan and an open pit on one or more will be mined.

The key to all this is to get the highest grade material to mill as a priority and sequence your various deposits to go from highest grade to lowest grade. There is no reason why one pit can't stop in favour of going to another pit as was done in the first three phases above.







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