WHARF

MINING

The mine has been developed as a series of open pits, most of which are now mined out. Advantageously, the pits have been progressively rehabilitated as mining development progressed thus limiting the environmental liabilities at mine closure.

Current operations are carried out in the Trojan pit and in development of the Deep Portland Pit, which will supply ore until early 2008. The Foley pit, which lies adjacent to the Trojan pit, was mined out in 2002 and is currently being backfilled.

Conventional open pit mining techniques using loader/truck operations are employed at the mine. The mine operates twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.

Ore and uneconomic rock is drilled and blasted before loading and transport. Drilling is conducted on a 15 feet square drill pattern. The drilled holes are loaded with an ammonium nitrate product that is blended with diesel fuel, and referred to as ANFO (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil). The ANFO is loaded to within 9 to 12 feet of the surface. The hole is then filled to the surface with crushed rock to contain the energy of the explosive within the hole.

The blasted rock is marked with color-coded flags after blasting to delineate the ore and uneconomic rock. The blasted rock is loaded into the trucks with rubber-tired front-end loaders. Ore is trucked from the pit to the crusher and uneconomic rock is transported to the waste rock depository using a fleet of 100-ton trucks.

Mining equipment includes three rubber-tired Cat 992G front-end loaders, six Cat 777D 100-ton trucks, and one IR DM-45 drill. Support equipment includes four dozers, two motor graders, two water trucks, and other miscellaneous equipment.