Monday 21 January 2013

Treasury Metals says environmental assessment required at Goliath, receives guidelines from CEAA


Treasury Metals (TSE:TML) provided Monday an update on the mine permitting process for its Goliath gold project in Ontario, after last month announcing the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) accepted its project description.
In December, its project description was submitted and accepted by the CEAA, initiating the official permitting and approvals process for mine development. 
The document officially beginned the legislated period for the completion of the environmental assessment (EA) by CEAA, which includes 45 days to determine whether an EA is required, and a period of 365 days to complete the EA. 
Today, the company said in a statement that the CEAA concluded to have the Goliath project subject to an environmental assessment. It has also received the notice of draft environmental impact assessment (EIS) guidelines. 
CEAA used the project description to develop the guidelines that Treasury has to follow to create the EIS, which is required under the government's permitting process. The company's technical team has been compiling the ongoing environmental baseline studies since 2010 to include in the EIS. 
The scope of the Goliath operation includes an initial open pit, followed by a combination of both open pit and underground mining methods of 10 to 12 years of mine life. 
Processing will be done using a 2,500 tonne per day carbon-in-leach plant, with any associated infrastructure necessary described in the document, the company said. 
The company is continuing its ongoing exploration program at its Goliath gold project, which is designed to increase the resource size and upgrade inferred resources into the indicated category for the completion of a feasibility study in 2013.
In fact, earlier this month the Toronto-based company said it had begun its 2013 exploration drilling program at Goliath. The main focus of the program is to further delineate the C Zone within the proposed open pit to bring inferred resources to indicated resources, and add ounces. 
Treasury said that further exploration of the C Zone high grade gold shoot will follow, which was discovered in the central part of the Goliath deposit last month, intersected around 50 metres behind the project's mineralized Main Zone. 
The gold miner said in late December that new interpretation suggests the shoot will form part of the project's mineralized C Zone gold resource. 
The discovery is considered significant since it is the first high grade zone found within the project's "sparsely drilled" C Zone that parallels the Main Zone. 
The junior company added that the shoot has the potential to add mineable gold ounces to the project's planned open pit and underground stopes. 
The draft EIS guidelines are available on the CEAA website, the company said, and can be found here: http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/document-eng.cfm?document=84356

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