The core team that developed the Brucejack gold mine, which sold to Newcrest Mining in 2022 for $3.5 billion, are back in the Golden Triangle digging for gold, silver and copper.
Former Pretium CEO Joseph Ovsenek, now CEO of Tudor Gold (TSX-V: TUD), and four other former Pretium executives, are working to prove up resources at the junior miner’s Treaty Creek gold-silver-copper project.
The project has received financial backing from the noted junior mining financier Eric Sprott, who owns 15% of Tudor Gold.
The double-edged sword of location
The project is located in the Golden Triangle north of Brucejack and east of Eskay Creek and KSM projects. Its proximity to other major mines is both a blessing and a curse.
On one hand, it means it shares good geology, and there is a lot of nearby infrastructure, like the Northwest Transmission Line, that is easily tied into, reducing capital costs.
But the deposit’s proximity to Seabridge’s KSM mine project could interfere with the company’s mining plans, as a twin-tunnel system that Seabridge plans to build to connect its open pit mining operation to its mill and tailings facilities would cut right through one of Tudor Gold’s prime mineral claims.
“We currently have a dispute going with Seabridge,” Ovsenek said.
A proven track record of speed
Tudor’s Treaty Creek project is in the Valley of the Kings — a high grade gold zone where Brucejack was developed.
Ovsenek was part of the team that developed the Brucejack gold mine. Other former Pretium executives that are part of the Tudor Gold team include:
- Ken McNaughton, vice president of project development;
- Ken Konkin, senior vice president of exploration;
- Grant Bond, chief financial officer; and
- Michelle Romero, vice president of external affairs.
McNaughton oversaw the Brucejack project exploration and Konkin was head of drilling.
Brucejack was distinguished by how quickly it was approved and developed. It went from mineralization discovery in 2009 to production in 2017.
“So, under eight years, from the discovery hole to putting it in production,” Ovsenek said.
Smaller footprint, faster permits
A small, underground mine can be built relatively quickly, compared to a large open-pit mine, which comes with a lot of environmental impacts that must be mitigated, like large tailings ponds.
“When you have a smaller footprint, there is less environmental issues,” Ovsenek said. “You have less waste rock, fewer tailings. So it is quicker to permit.”
Having support of local First Nations also helps with permitting timelines, and First Nations in the region, which include the Nisga’a and Tahltan, are generally supportive of mining.
Ovsenek was named CEO of Pretium in 2017.
In 2021, Newcrest Mining bought Pretium and Brucejack for US$2.8 billion ($3.5 billion).
A massive, consistent discovery
Tudor Gold was formed in 2016 and the Treaty Creek joint venture formed with Teuton Resources and American Creek Resources to explore the Treaty Creek claims.
As part of the exploration, the Goldstorm deposit was identified in the greater Treaty Creek claim area.
“It is one of the largest discoveries in recent times,” Ovsenek said.
Last month, Tudor Gold released an updated mineral resource estimate for Treaty Creek that includes indicated resources of 24.9 million ounces of gold, 148.7 million ounces of silver and 3.048 billion pounds of copper.
“That’s a big deposit by anybody’s standards,” Ovsenek said.
Developing without glaciers
While the grades are not as high as Brucejack’s, they are more consistently dispersed, he said.
“Brucejack had sensational grades, but it was nuggety. You would have bits here, bits there. The nice thing about Treaty Creek is the grades aren’t as spectacular but they’re more consistent.”
Treaty Creek should also cost less to develop because of its proximity to existing roads and transmission lines.
“We’re closer to the highway and the Northwest Transmission line,” Ovsenek said. “We’re about 40 kilometers away. We can push a road in. We don’t have to cross a glacier or anything.
“With Brucejack we had to push a 75-kilometre road. Twelve kilometers of that road is over a glacier. We had to build a 57-kilometre long transmission line. It cost us well over $100 million to build that transmission line.”
The multi-million-ounce tunnel dispute
One of the challenges for the Treaty Creek project is the dispute Tudor Gold is having with Seabridge and the provincial government.
Because its mine pit is located so far away from its proposed processing mill and tailings pond, Seabridge proposes to build 22-kilometre long twin tunnels to connect the two sites. It would cut through Tudor’s mineral claims, which Ovsenek said would “sterilize about 5 million ounces of gold.”
Tudor Gold is seeking a judicial review of a licence to occupy that was granted to Seabridge by the provincial government for the tunneling.
Tudor has suggested that the tunnels be shifted a kilometre away to avoid cutting through Tudor’s claim area.
“I think there’s a common sense solution to this,” Ovsenek said.
In December, Tudor Gold announced it had raised $24 million in two separate private placements.
“This money that we’ve raised is all dedicated to finding another big deposit like Goldstorm on our property,” Ovsenek said.
A mine plan and metallurgy is currently underway, and once that is done, a preliminary economic assessment will be done to assess the economics of a new mine.
“Our idea is: Can we put a 10,000 tonne per day underground mine in production that’s going to produce 250,000 to 300,000 ounces of gold a year, and can we make that economic?”
Nelson Bennett’s column appears weekly at Resource Works News. Contact him at [email protected].
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