Burgundy Hopes to Extend Life of Misery Mine
July 11, 24
(IDEX Online) - Burgundy hopes to extend the life of its Misery underground mine, part of the Ekati deposit in the Northwest Territories, Canada.
Misery was destined to close in late 2025 when Burgundy acquired it in February 2021.
But the Australian miner now says it has an ore body larger than originally modelled and announced yesterday (10 July) that it was embarking on a "targeted life extension delineation and geotechnical drilling".
It has identified two drill targets, one of which has not previously been included in Ekati's mineral resources.
Misery is the highest value ore at Ekati, and yields around 3m carats a year with a production value of around $235m.
It produced over 27m carats including fancy yellow stones an open pit and began underground operations in 2021.
"Misery is an exceptional asset which can generate around A$350m (US$235m) per annum in production value from just over a million tonnes of ore," said CEO and MD Kim Truter.
"Any additional tonnage we are able to declare through our drilling work will be significantly value accretive."
The mine was converted to an underground operation in 2019 and achieved commercial production in 2021.
Burgundy bought the mine, 125 miles south of the Arctic Circle for $136m from Arctic Canadian Diamond Company, which acquired the deposit in February 2021 after the previous owners, Dominion Diamonds, filed for insolvency.
Pic courtesy Burgundy.