Maritime Resources (TSXV: MAE; OTC Pink: MRTMF) has begun refurbishment work at its Pine Cove mill in the Baie Verte mining district of Newfoundland. The company thinks it will take a few months before the 1,300-t/d plant, which has been on care and maintenance since the first quarter of 2023, is restarted.
Sourcing of reagents and consumables and recruitment of key personnel is underway. Dwight Goudie has been named mill manager. He is a resident of the Baie Verte mining district and has over 40 years of combined mill maintenance, plant construction and mineral processing experience, from the Tumbler Ridge region, and in more recent years operating process plants for FireFly Metals (previously Rambler Metals and Mining).
Garett Macdonald, president and CEO said, “With the closing of the $8 million rights offering in September, we are moving quickly to re-commission the Pine Cove mill and return it to operating condition. Our focus over the next several months is to begin processing the mineralized stockpile inventory, providing cash flow and an important springboard for the development of our fully permitted Hammerdown gold project.”
Maritime has identified approximately 85,000 to 115,000 tonnes of stockpiled and tailings material grading approximately 1.1 g/t gold for approximately 3,000 to 4,000 oz. of contained gold.
The Pine Cove pit tailings impoundment area is also being prepared. The first tailings storage facility supporting former operations at Pine Cove, TSF1, contains inert tailings and is located adjacent to the site office complex. Maritime is currently working with Shoreline Aggregates to schedule the beginning of reclamation work of this area in the fourth quarter of 2024.
TSF2, also used for inert tailings storage during past operations, is being repurposed in support of Shoreline’s wash plant operations. TSF2 will be used for recycling of wash plant water and capture and removal of fines during Shoreline’s aggregate production. Construction work is near completion and the facility will be ready for Shoreline’s operations in 2025. Fines containing gold which are captured in this facility will be recovered and processed in the Pine Cove mill.
A feasibility study has been prepared for the Hammerdown gold mine. In June 2022 the project had an open pit, measured and indicated resource of 2.8 million tonnes grading 3.61 g/t gold, containing 330,000 oz. of gold. The inferred resource was 302,000 tonnes at 1.31 g/t gold, containing 13,000 oz. of gold. A much smaller underground resource has also been outlined.
More about the Hammerdown project is posted on www.MaritimeResourcesCorp.com.
