May 22, 2015
Located in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Ontario, the Detour Lake mine lies approximately 8 km west of the Ontario-Québec border and 180 km northeast of Cochrane. The property had already produced 1.8 million ounces of gold as a Placer Dome underground operation between 1983 and 1989.
Purchased by Detour Gold in 2006, Detour Lake contains a total resource of 3.4 million ounces (indicated and inferred). Over time, the company grew the resources, completed a positive feasibility study and now has proven and probable reserves of 15.5 million ounces (476.4 Mt and 1.02 g/t).
Detour Lake’s production potential is 600,000 ounces of gold annually for the first 10 years and 660,000 ounces of gold annually for the balance of the mine’s estimated 21.7 year life.
To realize that production, Detour Lake has entered a long-term relationship with Atlas Copco Canada. Six Atlas Copco Pit Viper 271 blasthole rigs – the first PV 271 rigs in this region – and three Atlas Copco SmartROC D65 blasthole rigs are now in production at the mine.
"Atlas Copco is our 21-year drilling partner. We chose Altas Copco rigs first of all because of their availability, but also because of Atlas Copco’s support network, which is transparent throughout Canada. We are having great success with these rigs."
Keeping Detour Lake on target to becoming Canada’s largest gold mine
As the nine rigs were delivered over the past two years, they were put to work side-by-side to rapidly expand the current pit, which is 700 m wide by 2.5 km long and 100 m deep, to a final footprint of 1.3 km by 3.5 km at 700 m depth. The footprint will allow Detour Lake access to a hanging wall of gold-bearing quartz veins with a 200 m wide, 3 km strike length.
Two of the six Pit Viper rigs are electric models, and four are diesel powered. All nine PV 271 and SmartROC D65 rigs were drilling 8-inch diameter holes using Atlas Copco tooling. Patterns were generally 250 to 300 holes with 6 m by 7 m burden and spacing, and each drill can complete a pattern in three to four shifts.
Epiroc operated under the trademark “Atlas Copco” prior to January 1, 2018.
