Commercial production at the Beaufor Mine began in the early 1930s and the mine has produced over 1.1 million oz Au over the years. In June 2020, the corporation initiated a 42 500 m diamond drilling programme to test two types of targets: the areas around historical high-grade intersections near the existing underground infrastructure, and isolated resource blocks, which are typically defined by a single drill intersection. Both of these ‘near-mine’ targets can often be tested from the existing underground workings, generally by holes less than 200 m long. However, the depth and position of newer targets has required Monarch to drill longer holes with underground electric drill rigs and, as a result, exploration drifts for diamond drilling are being developed to allow deeper drilling and optimal interception angles and reduce overall exploration costs. Since June 2020, 335 holes totalling 54 723 m have been drilled during the exploration and definition drilling programmes. Given the positive results, additional holes are now being drilled to allow the zones in question to be converted into reserves and included in a future mine plan. Monarch is continuing to drill, with five drill rigs underground.
Underground development and rehabilitation are ongoing in the W and 350 zones, which are easily accessible from the surface ramp located 100 m from the main Beaufor shaft. The ramp presently descends to a vertical depth of 180 m.
“We are happy with the results we are seeing so far with this program, which continues to generate strong drill results,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and CEO of Monarch. “In particular, these latest results confirm the high-grade nature and potential depth extension of the W and 140 zones, which are currently defined near surface and are part of our plan for near-term mining using the existing ramp. We will definitely focus our additional drilling on extending these zones at depth.”
Drill results are obtained by sawing the drill core into equal halves along its main axis and shipping one of the halves to ALS Canada in Val-d’Or, Quebec, or AGAT Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario, for assaying. The samples are crushed, pulverised and assayed by fire assay, with atomic absorption finish. Samples exceeding 10 g/t Au are re-assayed using the gravity method and samples containing visible gold are assayed using the metallic screen method. Monarch uses a comprehensive QA/QC protocol, including the insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates.
