Name of the Project
Kiena Complex restart project.

Location
Val d’Or, in Quebec, Canada.

Project Owner/s
Wesdome Gold Mines.

Project Description
The Kiena Complex includes the 2 000 t/d mill and tailings facilities of the Kiena mine; nine shafts, including the 930 m Kiena hoisting shaft; related underground workings from past producers and exploration projects; and various surface facilities. 

The restart project is expected to produce about 84 000 oz/y of gold over a seven-year mine life, with peak production of more than 115 000 oz in 2025.

Existing mine infrastructure will be used in production, thereby allowing for low costs and a short period to restart the mine.

The project will use longhole stoping and conventional drilling and blasting methods. Production will start at 413 t/d, increasing to more than 920 t/d.

The overall strategy is to maximise throughput from the high-grade Kiena Deep A Zone and to augment the production from the other zones. Trucks will haul the ore to the hoisting-shaft ore passes already established in the mine. Paste backfill will be used in the Kiena Deep A Zone to optimise stope cycle, mineability and production.

Metallurgical testwork has shown the current cyanidation and carbon-in-leach mill circuit is suited to maximise gold recovery averaging 98.5%.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of C$569-million and an internal rate of return of 135% at a gold price of C$1 600/oz, with a payback of 2.2 years after the start of operations.

Capital Expenditure
The project is estimated at C$232-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The Kiena operations restarted in May 2021.

Latest Developments
Exploration drilling at the Kiena Complex continues to expand high-grade zones and has also yielded the discovery of a new zone, Wesdome has reported.

Since the completion of the prefeasibility study (PFS) for Kiena in 2021, underground drilling has been focused on the exploration proximal to the Deep A Zones.

Early exploration success discovered the footwall zones in 2021 and drilling continues to expand these zones down plunge.

Most recently, underground exploration drilling at the Kiena Deep A Zones area has discovered a new mineralised interval, located 100 m below the known limit of A Zone resource. Wesdome has said that additional drilling will be needed to link this new mineralisation to the existing lenses.

Drilling has discovered the lateral extension of the A Zone along the South limb of the fold, an area that remains open along strike and down dip.

The discovery of a South limb could “significantly add” to the resource base, president and Wesdome CEO Duncan Middlemiss has said.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Base Metallurgical Laboratories (metallurgical testwork).

Contact Details for Project Information
Wesdome Gold Mines, tel +1 416 360 3743 or email info@wesdome.com.