Exploration Project Drilling For Gold Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mining

A KSM drill rig perches above a deep valley about 80 miles east of Wrangell. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)

British Columbia’s Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mining project wrapped up its 2015 exploration season in late September. The KSM, about 30 miles east of the Alaska border, is the largest of 10 or so such projects near waterways that flow into Southeast. 

Its owner, Toronto-based Seabridge Gold, The Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) mine, owned by Seabridge Gold, is located approximately 65km north-west of Stewart in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the world's biggest gold / copper projects under development has already spent close to $200 million searching for ore. We take you there, during the previous season, to learn about the exploration process.

A drill rig grinds into the bedrock of a high ridge, overlooking a wilderness of snow-capped mountains and lushly vegetated valleys. The bright blue rig juts up through the roof of a rough shack of sturdy tarps, sheets of plywood and heavy timber.

Inside, Jeff Skinner is setting up the diesel-powered, hydraulic drill rig for its next run.

“Well, we’re doing mineral exploration for these gentlemen. We’re drilling the hole, pulling the rock samples out of the ground and sending them down to the geologists and they take care of it from there,” he says.

A glacier reflects in a naturally occurring pool of rusty, acidic water at the site of one of the KSM  prospect’s planned open-pit mines. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/ CoastAlaska News).

Long, brownish pipes are lined up outside the shack, waiting to be used.

“They put the steel in a giant drill chuck like you’d have in a hand drill. And turn it at high speed with a diamond bit at the end,” says Bill Threlkeld, senior vice president for exploration for Seabridge Gold, which has drilled 383 holes at the KSM over the past 10 years.

The pipes are sent deep into the ground and an inner sleeve brings back cylindrical samples, called cores. Threlkeld says they help pinpoint the location of the richest gold and copper deposits.

“It was at roughly 700 meters depth, so 2,100 feet, more or less, down. Before the work on this hole is done, the drill will reach more than two-thirds of a mile into the Earth,” he says.

“We have Mitchell 0-6, so it’s Mitchell, drilled in 2006, zero-one, first hole,” he says.

He’s taken me to near the end of a valley that can only be described as “raw.” It’s bare rock, with no trees or bushes.

At the valley’s upper end is what’s left of the glacier that once filled this U-shaped valley. Murphy says “once” wasn’t that long ago.

“We’re walking to an area where six years ago, where we’re standing, the ice would have been 10 feet above our outstretched arms. So you can see how much it’s receded,” he says.

The valley is splotched and streaked with rust, reddish-brown streams flowing down its sides. The color comes from exposed iron, which reacts with air and water.

Sulphurets Creek, which drains naturally occurring rusty water from the KSM prospect, enters the Unuk River. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld/CoastAlaska News)

“This is oxidation. Natural oxidation. And this is what produces the acid, which everyone has concerns about for water contamination,” he says.


Acidic water from mines and stored waste rock can hurt or kill fish, including those Alaskans depend on for food and jobs. KSM developers say it will be treated and stored properly at the site, about 80 miles east of Wrangell. Critics in Southeast cast strong doubts.


Up one side of the valley is a much different color. It looks like someone spilled a very large can of paint while ascending the ridge.

The blueish-green is just an indication that there’s copper in the system here. It gets exposed to the atmosphere and the copper comes out of solution. It’s an indication we’re in a mineral-rich area.

Because in this part of the world, where you find copper, you find gold.

After the cores are drilled out of the bedrock, they’re flown by helicopter to the KSM’s analysis operation, farther down the valley.

They’re cut into clearly labeled pieces for examination.Inside another wood-and-tarp building, Michelle Campbell points to the computer screen of what’s called a hyperspectral imaging device.

“A regular camera just looks at three spectral bands. But this one looks at 214 different spectral bands, so it’s much more precise,” she says.

The picture is electronically enhanced to show what’s on the surface of the rock core. She’s happy with what she sees, the presence of valuable metals.

“So in this one it would be like the reds and some of these darker, like brownie, colors. [They’re] the good stuff,” she says.

The cores and the enhanced images undergo further scrutiny before being shipped south for more detailed analysis by an independent lab. Those results determine whether and where the company will mine.

But other factors come into play. Seabridge Gold has the main provincial and federal permits needed to turn its exploration project into a mine. But it’ll still need to raise more than $5 billion, U.S., from potential investors.

Rock cores wait for analysis at the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell project, one of the British Columbia mines planned for near the Southeast Alaska border. (Photo by Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska News)

Source : News Gold Mining In The World

Simple Method Of Testing Gold Land Area

      In collecting test samples contained in the soil prior to exploration activities in areas that have been analyzed there is an economic ore mineral content, it is necessary to conduct excavation activities at a certain point to obtain evidence of rock specimens that can later be analyzed in the laboratory. Intake of rocks in the soil was aimed to obtain specific results of the analysis of economic ore mineral content in order to support the holding of an activity will step exploration. Investigations of rocks in the soil is done by digging a hole at a certain point in the detection of the existence of metallic elements and is usually done by digging test wells (test pit) or test trench excavation method (Trench)

SIMPLE METHOD OF TEST PIT: a method of extracting process by making a hole at a certain point at coordinates containing the metal in the soil. And is one way in the search for or assurance of continuous sediment layers in the vertical direction. Making this test well done if needed greater depth (> 2.5 m).
This test wells commonly performed on an exploration of deposits related to weathering and layered deposits:

• In the sediment layer, making the test wells intended to receive periodic layers in the direction of the slope, roof and floor lithology variations, layer thickness, and sediment characteristics in a vertical variation, and can be used as a location for example is usually made ​​with a deep test wells to penetrate the whole layer of sediment mineralization which can be either gold vein 
• In the sediment associated with weathering (laterite or residual), manufacture of test wells is intended to get the boundaries of the zone layer (soil zone, a zone of residual laterite zone), the thickness of each zone, the vertical variation of each zone, as well as in row Test wells can be done by using the form of sediment.

In general, test wells are made with a large opening 3m -5 m with a depth varies in accordance with the purpose of making the test wells. On lateritic sediment or residual While depth depends on the depth of the mineral sediment or bedrock (bedrock) and stability (stability) test with both walls. If no depth buffer test well in the range 4m - 5 m. In order to obtain a sample of the shape and location of materials deposition in outline, then dug a few test with regular patterns such as rectangular or square (on the corner of the pattern has been dug wells test) with regularly spaced too (100m - 500 m), except when circumstances do not allow the field or topography. With the depth, size and distance from the test wells is limited.

Some things to note in the manufacture of test wells:

1. The thickness of the laterite zone or residual at the location of manufacturing activity held test pit 
2. The possibility of harmful gases that emerged as CO2 or H2S gas 
3. Ground water level 
4. The strength of the walls of the hole that was made, and 
5. Hardness of bedrock.

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