ESGold has unveiled positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) results for reprocessing of several tailings sites at the Montauban gold-silver-zinc-lead mines.
The PEA was delivered by a team of experts from JPL Geoservices, Edmond St-Jean Eng., Groupe Alphard, independent consultants led by Canada-based GoldMinds Geoservices.
The PEA supports the reprocessing of tailings with very attractive economics and clears the path for the rejuvenation of Montauban mines with the remediation of the legacy mine tailings.
ESGold expects that the positive PEA results will help procure financing for the construction of the new tailings pond, completion of the mill, and submission of the reclamation plan.
According to the Canadian gold and silver mining company, the positive PEA represents a step closer towards its goal to reinforce the area’s 100-year mining history.
ESGold CEO and director Jean Yves Therien “The PEA clearly demonstrates the low cost and positive return of the Montauban reprocessing/remediation project using a traditional excavation and reprocessing scenario, which includes pulping, pumping, gravity separation, cyanidation for gold/silver recovery with Merryl Crow.
“The stabilisation of the orphan tailings at Montauban includes the addition of limestone from the nearby St-Marc des Carrières quarry.
“The company intends on cleaning the area and delivering a secured non-acid generating tailings pond. The various tailings have unique topography and are not saturated, which makes them amenable to rapid development and extraction.”
The mineral claims comprising the Montauban property are located in southern Quebec, 120km west of Québec City and 80km northeast of Trois-Rivières.
The property currently comprises a contiguous block of 76 claims covering 23.6km² and is underlain by rocks of the Grenville Province.
It hosts five principal tailings sites, Anacon Lead 1, Anacon Lead 2, Tetreault 1, Tetreault 2 and the Notre-Dame-de-Montauban tailings.
The tailings were generated during the processing of ore from the historic underground Montauban mine.
Currently, the project requires the excavation and pumping of tailings material to the mill for the recovery of coarse micas into a sellable concentrate.
The PEA suggests a conventional truck and shovel sand pit operation, except having a pumping box where the tailings will be mixed with water and pumped to the mill.
The mineralised material is excavated and will be discharged, and then pumped to the mill, which will be in operation full-time over nine months, from April to December.
