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REGIONAL NEWS - U.S. & CANADA 8 E&MJ; • APRIL 2017 www.e-mj.com feasibility study completed in March 2016 contemplates the development of a low- cost panel caving operation with an initial 12-year mine life. Ore would be transport- ed by conveyor to the existing processing facilities, with concentrate transported to a wholly owned concentrate load-out facili- ty located in Mackenzie, British Columbia. The $452 million project is expected to produce 1.4 million oz of gold, 573 million lb of copper and 4.5 million oz of silver over the course of its mine life. IDM Expands Underground Drilling at Red Mountain IDM Mining Ltd. has mobilized crews to its Red Mountain project near Stewart, Brit- ish Columbia, to initiate its spring 2017 Phase I underground drilling program. The objective of the Phase I program is to expand mineralization to the north of the JW zone, following up on wide and high-grade historic intercepts. Addition- ally, drilling will step-out both up-dip and down-dip from the AV and JW zones, where mineralization can be traced for hundreds of meters from 2016 and historic drill in- tercepts, often with stacked, gently dipping mineralized zones. Phase I will consist of 8,000 meters (m) of core drilling in ap- proximately 35 holes, using two under- ground diamond drills, collared from the production-sized underground decline. "Our 2016 drilling program was suc- cessful in expanding mineralization in all of the major mineralized zones," said Rob McLeod, CEO of IDM Mining. "The cur- rent strike length of resources within the Marc, AV and JW Zones is 600 m, with historic drilling intersecting gold mineral- ization for a further 800 m to the north." The majority of current resources at Red Mountain are hosted within three zones: Marc, AV and JW, each separat- ed by post-mineralization faults. Located north of a fault bounding the JW zone, the SF Zone has received only minor, wide- spaced drilling and does not currently host any resources. Initial drilling will step out on 25- to 50-m centers from these historic inter- cepts, covering approximately 300 m of strike length north of current resources. The 17,125-hectare Red Mountain gold project is located in northwestern British Columbia, 15 km northeast of the town of Stewart. IDM is currently completing a feasibility study for a high- grade, underground gold-silver mine. Newmont Secures Rights to Explore New Yukon District Newmont Mining announced an agree- ment to access and explore a highly pro- spective gold district in Canada's Yukon Territory through a private placement with Goldstrike Resources. The agreement en- titles Newmont to earn up to 80% equity in the Plateau property through explora- tion investment. The Plateau property is a newly discovered gold system consisting of more than 2,000 claims covering 350 km 2 . Initial drill results are promising and high-grade gold mineralization has been identified over a 50-km strike length. "The Plateau agreement strengthens our long-term growth pipeline and lever- ages our world-class exploration capabil- ities," said Gary Goldberg, president and CEO, Newmont Mining. "We've added more than 125 million ounces (oz) of gold reserves by the drill bit over the last 16 years and about three-quarters of our reserves are located in North America and Australia. We will continue to invest in opportunities that combine the best val- ue with the most favorable technical and geopolitical attributes." In 2017, Newmont expects to boost its exploration and advanced projects ex- penditure by 22%, with about two-thirds of that amount going to fund more brown- fields and greenfields exploration. IOC Developing Wabush 3 Open Pit Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC) is proceed- ing with the development of the Wabush 3 pit at its mining operations near Lab- rador City, Newfoundland and Labrador. IOC is a joint venture between Rio Tin- to (58.7%), Mitsubishi (26.2%) and Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Corp. (15.1%). Rio Tinto is the manager. In- vestment in the Wabush 3 project is bud- geted at C$79 million. Wabush 3 is a new pit that will be de- veloped within IOC's existing mine opera- tions to extend the life of the mine, reduce operating costs, and increase production of iron ore concentrate and pellets. The pit will be developed adjacent to the existing Luce pit. The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has released the Wabush 3 project from the environmental assessment process, and construction is expected to start in the second quarter of 2017. First ore from production mining of the Wabush 3 pit is scheduled for the second half of 2018 and will help IOC ramp up its annual capacity from 18 million met- ric tons per year (mt/y) to 23 million mt/y. Wabush 3 will be fully integrated into IOC's overall Labrador City operations, utilizing existing maintenance, ore delivery, pro- cessing and tailings management facilities, as well as other aspects of IOC's current infrastructure and activities in the region. IOC's Labrador City operations pro- duce iron ore concentrate and pellets for transport to the company's port facil- ities at Sept-Iles, Quebec, via its whol- ly-owned, 418-km-long Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway. From Sept- Iles, the products are shipped to markets throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. IOC's 2016 production totaled 9.8 million mt of pellets and 8.4 million mt of concentrate. The Wabush 3 will increase IOC's iron ore production by 5 million mt/y.