North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Coeur Mining Inc. April 25 reported a 25 percent increase in proven and probable reserves at its Kensington gold mine. According to the updated technical report, Kensington now hosts 620,700 ounces of gold in 2.96 million tons of reserves averaging 0.21 oz per ton, or 7.1 grams per metric ton, gold, roughly a 10 percent increase over the year-end 2016 reserves.

"The results of Kensington's technical report illustrate the significant impact a relatively small amount of high-grade mill feed can have on this mine's prospects," said Coeur President and CEO Mitchell Krebs.

Contained in this reserve is a maiden reserve estimate for the high-grade Jualin deposit of 74,100 oz gold in 157,600 tons of ore averaging 0.47 oz/t, or 16.1 g/t gold.

Following two years of underground development, Coeur began mining at Jualin deposit during the third quarter of 2017.

The amount of water encountered at Jualin, however, has hampered the production from this high-grade deposit.

"Once we complete dewatering efforts at Jualin, we plan to ramp up mining rates beginning in the fourth quarter," said Krebs.

The company anticipates mining 100 tons per day from Jualin in 2019 and more than 180 tons per day in 2020.

In addition to the reserves, Kensington has 2.74 million tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.26 oz/t (712,600 oz) gold; and 1.39 million tons of inferred resource averaging 0.22 oz/t (304,800 oz) gold.

This roughly 1 million oz of gold in resources and the numerous other targets Coeur's exploration team has identified on the property indicate the potential of extending the life of Kensington beyond 2020.

Coeur Mining Inc.

The Jualin portal (upper right-hand corner) is ideally situated to deliver ore from the high-grade gold deposit to the mill at Coeur Mining's Kensington operation in Southeast Alaska.

The Kensington district once hosted several past producing mines and prospects, illustrating a lengthy mineralization corridor. Coeur said it intends to explore these historical vein structures over the next 18 months to determine their potential to provide high-grade mill feed, both supplementing feed from Raven and Jualin as well as succeeding them in the longer-term. The company said surface mapping and sampling of these historic veins have demonstrated encouraging results and the exploration team plans to drill several of these targets for continuity at depth.

"This initial reserve declaration at Jualin represents an important milestone, and we continue to work towards defining Kensington's greater potential," said Krebs. "Our exploration team has identified numerous high-grade, historically-producing veins that are drill-ready, close to existing infrastructure, and we intend to explore their potential to serve as supplemental sources of high-margin production. Like Jualin and Raven, these targets have the potential to drive value at Kensington for many years to come."

–SHANE LASLEY