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6 E&MJ; • JANUARY 2016 www.e-mj.com REGIONAL NEWS - U.S. & CANADA Donlin Project Reaches Permitting Milestone Barrick Gold and NovaGold Resources reported in late November that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published its Donlin Gold Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Donlin gold project in southwest Alaska. The Corps will hold public meetings on the DEIS and accept written comments until the end of April, with publication of a final EIS expected in 2017. Donlin Gold LLC, jointly owned by Barrick and NovaGold, has applied for per- mits to develop an open-pit, hard rock gold mine. The project would take about three to four years to construct. Mine life is esti- mated at 27.5 years, producing approxi- mately 1 million oz/y of gold. The process- ing facility would have throughput capacity of about 59,000 st/d. If developed, the Donlin project would be based on a subsurface lease with Calista Corp., an Alaska Native regional corporation, and a surface use agree- ment with Kuskokwim Corp., a merged Alaska native village corporation. Some project components would be on state of Alaska and U.S. Bureau of Land Manage- ment lands. The mine and facilities would have a total footprint of about 16,300 acres. The open pit would ultimately be about 2.2 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 1,850 ft deep. A tailings impoundment would ulti- mately cover about 2,350 acres, while a waste rock facility would cover approxi- mately 2,300 acres. A proposed barge landing on the Kuskokwim river would be a key piece of transportation infrastructure, which would also include a 30-mi road from the mine site to the barge landing, a 5,000-ft airstrip, and upgraded dock facilities at the shipping port of Bethel. A proposed 315- mi pipeline would bring natural gas to a proposed on-site power plant. The Corps has a dedicated website for its Donlin project's DEIS at www.don- lingoldeis.com. Champion Buying Cliffs' Bloom Lake Iron Ore Mine Champion Iron has agreed to purchase the Bloom Lake open-pit iron ore mine, related rail assets, and the Quinto mineral claims in Québec from affiliates of Cliffs Natural Resources. The assets are currently subject to restructuring proceedings. The Bloom Lake mine and concentrator are located approximately 9 mi southwest of Fermont, Québec. Cliffs shut down pro- duction at the mine and placed it on care and maintenance in late 2014. Production in 2014 totaled 5.9 million metric tons (mt) of iron ore concentrate. Concentrate is transported 320 m by rail to a ship-loading port at Pointe Noire, Québec. Bloom Lake has a rated capacity of 7.2 million mt/y of iron ore concentrate. Champion Iron is an iron ore exploration and development company that has proper- ties in Québec and Labrador. It is acquiring the Bloom Lake assets and Quinto claims for C$10.5 million in cash and assumption of certain liabilities. Champion also will become responsible for environmental obli- gations that include reclamation liabilities currently assessed at approximately C$41.7 million by the Québec government, as well as the replacement of certain bonds totaling approximately C$1.1 million. Champion has identified opportunities to increase mine capacity at Bloom Lake. Previous operations produced a maximum of 6 million mt/y of fines grading 66% iron. Champion anticipates increasing produc- tion to more than 7 million mt/y at a similar grade, chiefly through implementation of a new mine plan and improved recoveries. Champion also anticipates that it will be able to reduce operating costs. Nyrstar Suspends Production at Middle Tennessee Mines Nyrstar NV announced on December 7 that it is placing its middle Tennessee zinc mines on care and maintenance to further minimize cash consumption in its mining segment as it continues to address the impact of low metals prices. The decision will result in approximately 50,000 mt/y of zinc in concentrate being taken out of the market. Zinc metal production at Nyrstar's Clarksville, Tennessee, smelter will be reduced by about 9,000 mt/y. The Clarksville smelter will continue to be sup- plied by Nyrstar's east Tennessee mines and additional external sources. The smelter produced 110,000 mt of zinc in 2014. Nyrstar's middle Tennessee operations include three underground mines and a concentrator, all located in Smith County. Nyrstar CEO Bill Scotting said, "The deci- sion to place our middle Tennessee mining operations on care and maintenance was not taken lightly. We continue to take deci- sive action to reduce spending in our mines, and further mine operation suspen- sions may be necessary if the depressed metals price environment continues. We expect to complete a process to divest the majority or all of our mines over the course of 2016." In addition to its U.S mines, Nyrstar has operations in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Honduras and Chile. Deposit map for the Donlin gold project shows future exploration and resource-expansion targets. (Courtesy of NovaGold)