Renard

Overview

The Foxtrot Property is located approximately 820 km north of the city of Montreal in the Province of Quebec, Canada. Current access to the property is via air.

Historical regional exploration has been undertaken for gold and base metals. Both BHP and De Beers conducted regional diamond studies but the results are not known. The first systematic diamond exploration program started in 1996 by a jv between SOQUEM and Ashton. The Renard 1 and 2 kimberlite bodies were discovered in 2001.

The Renard diamond pipes are to be mined by using a combination of open pit and underground minining methods over an estimated 11 years mine life with maximum diamond production peaking at 2.1 million carats/annum, and averaging 1.7 million carats/annum life of mine.  Additional carats could be produced from an inferred resource that lies within the planned mine infrastructure.

Diamond processing plant would have nameplate 6,000tpd capacity.

The initial estimated capital cost of C$802 million.

The project enjoys broad support within communities of the James Bay region

Location

Quebecis a province in east-central Canada. French is the official language at provincial level.

The Foxtrot/Renard Property is located approximately 820 km north of the city of Montreal, 360 km northeast of Chibougamau,120 km south of the all-weather Trans-Taiga highway.

At its closest point, a winter road leading to a closed past gold producer is roughly 58 km south of the Foxtrot Property.

Long winters and short summers characterize the climate. Temperature ranges are extreme, with summer maximums of +35°C and winter minimums of -45°C. Topographic relief within the property consists of steep-sided hills with rounded tops separated by muskeg-covered valleys. Elevations range between 400 masl and 800 masl. Lakes, ponds and small rivers are common. 

Vegetation consists largely of immature to mature black spruce, poplar, alders and muskeg, with

increasing proportions of muskeg and black spruce toward the north. Animals such as bear, fox, moose, marten and caribou, as well as various species of birds, are present in the vicinity of the property.

Geology and Mineralization

The Project area is located within the eastern portion of the Superior Craton. There are five known episodes of kimberlitic volcanism in Québec. The Renard cluster is considered to be part of the Otish kimberlitic volcanic event.

To date, nine kimberlite bodies have been identified over a two square kilometre area in the Renard cluster (Renard 1 to Renard 10; Renard 5 and Renard 6 being one kimberlite body, renamed to Renard 65). The kimberlites are typically spaced between 50 m and 500 m from each other.

The pipes comprise root zone to lower diatreme facies rocks that are characterized by a complex internal geology.

The Probable Mineral Reserves stands at 18.0 million carats representing 23.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 78 carats per hundred tonnes, after allowance for mining dilution and ore recovery, and at a weighted average diamond valuation of US$180/carat.  An additional 17 million carats of Inferred Mineral Resources is accounted for within the scope of the FS mine infrastructure.

Mining & Operation 

The Renard FS outlines a combined open pit and underground mine based on a Mineral Reserve contained within the Renard 2, 3 and 4 kimberlite pipes. During years 1 and 2 production will be derived predominantly from an open pit at Renard 2 and 3 developed to a maximum depth of 113 meters and with a strip ratio of 5 to 1. Starting in year 2, production will be derived from an underground mine utilizing a 5.5 meter diameter shaft to 740 meters depth and access ramp. 

Underground mining of Renard 2 and 3 to a maximum depth of 610 meters will be by blast-hole shrink stoping with waste backfill placed from surface. Underground mining of Renard 4, which will commence in year 8, will be by blast-hole shrink stoping with waste backfill under a crown pillar. 

Nameplate ore processing capacity will be 6,000 tonnes per day (2.2 Mtonnes/annum) with maximum annual carat production exceeding 2 Mcarats/annum. Overall, 83% of diamond production will be from Renard 2, 8% from Renard 3 and 9% from Renard 4. 

The current production scenario includes total tailings production of approximately 45 million tonnes. A single waste rock pile is planned and the tailings will be disposed in a valley facility with tailings discharge behind an earth-fill upstream-built tailings dam. Water will be reclaimed from the tailings facility’s upstream pond. 

Following the mine life, the stopes will be allowed to flood with the water reaching its natural level in each of the pits. The Renard 9 pipe will not be mined through to surface since it is located under a body of water and a 100 m crown pillar has been allowed for.

Mining equipment include:

-          Drilling & Blasting: - ITH production drills (2); Longhole drills (2); Rockbolt unit (2);

-          Excavation, Loading & Hauling: 50t low profile haul trucks (4); 30t haul truck (1); 7.5m3 scooptrams (4); 3.2m3 scooptrams (3); 2 boom electric/hydraulic drill jumbos (2);  20t skips; Backhoe (1); Rockbreaker on excavator (1);

-          Crushing & Conveying: Grizzly crusher; 900 mm x 1,200 mm jaw crusher (1); 900 mm conveyor belt; High pressure grinding rolls;

Processing

The diamond process plant design is based on an initial capacity of 3,500 tpd, or 1.3 million tpa, for the initial three years and increases to 5,000 tpd for the balance of the twenty-five year mine life. The ore processing system will recover at least 96% by weight of all liberated diamonds above one millimetre from the Renard cluster of kimberlites.

Primary and secondary crushing via jaw crusher followed by cone crusher to produce suitably sized plant feed (-75 mm).

Ore preparation via HPGR to liberate locked diamonds. HPGR product will be de-agglomerated and sized using a rotary scrubber and vibrating screens.

Scrubbing and screening will produce clean and suitably sized material for further size reduction (+30 mm), for DMS (-30 mm+ 1 mm), and for fines disposal (-1 mm).

Dense Media Separation: Washed and sized feed (-30 mm + 1 mm) will be separated on the basis of density into diamond-bearing concentrate and a reject stream. The diamond bearing concentrate will report to the diamond recovery plant.

Diamond recovery and non-diamond removal: The –4 mm diamonds from the diamond-bearing concentrate will be recovered using grease technology, and + 4 mm luminescent diamonds will be recovered using X-ray.

A large hydroelectric generating station at LG-4 is located approximately 150 km to the north–northwest of the Foxtrot Property, could potentially supply power to any mine that might be developed on the property.

Process water may be sourced from local lakes or recirculated from surface facilities such as the processed kimberlite containment area or the underground exploration workings.

Environment & Community

Environmental considerations for the project principally include the effects of surface disturbance, effluent discharges, and waste disposal resulting from mining and processing operations.

The project enjoys broad support within communities of the James Bayregion.

The Stornoway–SOQUEM joint venture is committed to building long-term relationships with the Cree Nation of Mistissini and the GCC. The mandate of this committee is to optimize the level of employment for Mistissini inhabitants.