Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. initiated construction of the Starvation Canyon portal face located in the southern portion of Jerritt Canyon gold mine in Elko County, Nevada. Jerritt Canyon, operated by Queenstake Resources USA, is a subsidiary of Yukon-Nevada.
Permitting activities with the state of Nevada were completed in 2011 allowing the company to begin advancing Starvation Canyon to an underground mine project. The current plan is to have 150 ft of portal development in place before winter sets in.
“This is a quite an exciting milestone that we have achieved at Jerritt Canyon,” said Randy Reichert, co-CEO and president, and COO, Yukon-Nevada. “We are looking forward to adding Starvation Canyon gold production to our pipeline which includes production from our two existing mines: the Smith and SSX/Steer mines.” The last previous major underground mine development at Jerritt Canyon was the Steer mine which started in 2004.
Ore production from the Starvation Canyon mine will commence in 2013 at a targeted rate of 300 to 600 tons per day. The company will use underground mining contractors for the initial phase while evaluating equipment purchase options in the interim. At the end of 2011, Yukon-Nevada reported a measured and indicated resource including 5,900 tons averaging 0.294 oz/ton containing 1,700 oz and 519,400 tons averaging 0.25 oz/ton containing 130,000 oz, respectively.
