Artemis Gold (TSXV: ARTG) says its Blackwater mine in central British Columbia is now in the final stages of construction and commissioning, tracking towards its scheduled first gold pour by the end of this year.
In an update provided Thursday, the company said first ore has been fed to the processing facility’s crushing circuits, with full handover from commissioning to the operations team expected within the next few weeks.
Mining operations in the open pit, located about 160 km southwest of Prince George, BC, have already commenced in the quarter, it added.
The 225kV renewable grid power line and substation have been successfully commissioned and is now feeding the Blackwater site as planned. With the 25kV site-wide power reticulation almost complete, Artemis said it expects to gradually shut down and demobilize the diesel power generation units across the site before the end of 2024.
The tailings storage facility construction activity is also complete and ready for production as planned.
Artemis now expects to feed first ore to the ball mill in the next few weeks and continues to target first gold pour before year end.
Once in production, Blackwater will become the province’s first new gold mine since the Brucejack in 2017, producing an average of 500,000 oz. in gold equivalent during its first ten years.
Shares in Artemis Gold rose 6.2% by 1:30 p.m. ET on Friday following the latest update, taking the Vancouver-based miner’s market capitalization to C$3.3 billion ($2.3bn).
