The Yellowknife Gold Belt is home to some famous past-producing high-grade gold mines like the Discovery Mine (past production one-million ounces of gold from one-million tons of ore), the Negus and Con Mines (combined past-producing six-million ounces of gold from 12 million tonnes of ore), and the appropriately named Giant Mine (past-producing eight-million ounces of gold from 16 million tonnes of ore). The first three of these past producers started in the 1930’s and 1940’s at 100 tpd, whereas the last one started at 235 tpd in the 1940’s and ramped up as development warranted. It’s been a long time since a new operation poured the stuff Yellowknife is famous for.
Sixty North Gold Mining Ltd. (CSE: SXTY; FKT: 2F4; OTC-Pink: SXNTF) has focused on the development of mineral deposits using the same concepts as used successfully in the past for all of these past producers, using modern equipment. These past producers were all initially viewed as small high-grade deposits with low capital costs, however all of these have proven to be much larger than expected.
In 2021, the company moved all heavy equipment, supplies, and services to the Mon Property, 45-kilometres north of Yellowknife where production in the 1990’s from two 15-metre-high stopes produced 15,000 tonnes of ore yielding 15,000 ounces of gold. This summer crews opened up some of the old workings and access was established to 17 metres below the historic stopes where the gold-bearing vein was exposed in multiple locations. The Phase 1 program was to confirm the location and grade of the vein at this depth. Phase 2 will see further development of stopes in preparation of feeding a 100 tpd mill which the company plans to bring onto site. The company believes that historic production grades of 30 gold per tonne (gpt) in the 1990’s from stopes above our development, and a small stope at the north-end of our development confirm the potential. Historic drill holes where our stopes are to be developed contain intersections confirming the vein location and grades (including 61.38 grams of gpt over 1.2 metres, and 25.37 gpt over 1.7 metres).
