St. Andrew positioned for mid-tier status.

• Author: Larmour, Adelle
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: TIMMINS

St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd. is well positioned to become a mid-tier gold production and exploration company within the Timmins mining camp over the next four years.

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Within the last year alone, the company has been busy consolidating its properties and assets with the acquisitions of Newmont Canada Ltd.'s Holloway-Holt gold mines and Kinross Gold Corp.'s Aquarius deposit. St. Andrew now owns more than 100,000 hectares. Its regional office is located in Matheson where the engineering and administration is conducted.

The company's exploration properties span about 120 kilometres. Central Timmins properties extend from Night Hawk Lake across to Matheson, and the Golden Reward project extends from Matheson to the Quebec-Ontario border.

As well, the Stock mill on the west side of Timmins is running at 1,000 tonnes per day, receiving ore from the Clavos and Hislop mines.

At September's end 2006, approximately 79,000 tonnes of ore was mined from Clavos at 5 grams of gold per tonne (g/t Au). This production was below company expectations with a nine-month net loss reported at almost $40 million, according to a Nov. 15,2006 news release. However, future gold production from Clavos is projected to increase to about 1.1 million grams (40,000 oz) of gold per annum over the next three years.

The mine's narrow, high-grade veins have proven difficult to access due to a lack of experienced miners.

"They are a dying breed," says President and CEO Glenn Laing. "The production at Clavos is hampered by the availability of shrink miners. It is a tough physical job and is not mechanized at all."

Like many of the mining companies in northeastern Ontario, St. Andrew is training about 20 per cent of its 300 employees and continues to look for experienced and new miners to fill 45 vacancies.

Lower-grade ore from the open pit Hislop mine is also supplying the Stock mill. It has an expected gold production of 567,000 g (20,000 oz) per annum at 3 g/t Au.

The Taylor mine are also part of the operation. Currently the Taylor mine is being developed with a 3,300-metre underground ramp to access the Taylor shaft, and Upper and West Porphyry Zones for delineation and drilling. Laing says it will be the next source of ore for the Stock mill running at a higher grade of approximately 8 to 9 g/t Au.

"We are forecasting the third half of next year (2008) that we'll be sending ore from Taylor into the Stock mill," he says.

In 2009, ore from the Aquarius...