Hollinger Mine makes progress in development: open pit taking shape at Timmins mine.

AuthorKelly, Lindsay
PositionMINING

Development work on Goldcorp's Hollinger open-pit mine in Timmins is progressing steadily, following ramp-up last October.

Goldcorp's Brendan Zuidema, general manager of Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM), the Timmins-area division of Goldcorp, and Don Burke, general manager of the Hollinger Mine, visited city council in March to provide an update on the work done so far.

Progress is slowly becoming more visible, Burke said: the topography is levelling out and walls are starting to form inside the pit.

"The pit is actually starting to look like a real pit, so things are progressing extremely well," he said.

Manpower has ramped up as well. The company now has 113 operational personnel and 42 contractors at the site. Maintenance staff numbers 44 employees and technical staff remains steady at 165 employees.

Burke said PGM has been working to reduce the number of contractors on site and increase the number of PGM employees.

There are three main areas to the Hollinger Mine: the 92 pit to the south of the property, the Central pit to the northeast, and Millerton. The company has been focusing its efforts on building up 9-metre benches.

"Over the months of October, November and December, a lot of the mining activities have been focused on the 92 pit area," although more work is starting to be done the Central pit, Burke said.

"There won't be a lot of work in the Millerton in 2016," he added. "There will be some pioneering and levelling of the landscape later in the year, but for the most part, 2016 will be focused on the 92 pit and the Central pit."

The pit's ultimate depth could change over time as PGM strives to make it as efficient an operation as possible, he noted. But, using current numbers, at its deepest, the Central pit will reach a depth of 168 metres, at the 3,232 elevation.

Over the fourth quarter of 2015, PGM blasted 2.3 million tonnes of ore and waste, an increase from 1.5 million tonnes during the third quarter.

"So you can see a ramp-up in October when we went to full production," Burke said.

The rate of blasting now remains steady at around 800,000 to 900,000 tonnes per month, he added.

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While developing the site, the company is also managing community feedback.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, the company received 73 "feedback events," including 35 complaints, the majority of which were related to noise. But not all noise was related to activities at Hollinger; some came from the Dome site...

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