Pre-construction activities at the Kemess Underground Project (located in Northern British Columbia, Canada) started in 2018. Activities to date include: purchase of the first lateral development fleet, preliminary earthworks, construction of a water discharge system to dewater the future tailings storage facility, and construction of a water treatment plant. The project has also undergone an economic update throughout 2019-2020 to advance engineering and improve economics ahead of a construction decision. A conceptual study was undertaken to determine the mine design changes required to increase the mining production rate to 35,000 tonnes per day versus the base case NI 43-101 Feasibility Study assumption of 25,000 tonnes per day.
The simulation concluded that larger production LHDs (17.3t payload) and a modified primary crusher layout is required to achieve 35,000 tonnes per day.
