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DARWIN MINE DEVELOPMENT PLAN
ESSENTIAL SERVICES:
A. Water system (both Municipal and Industrial). Installation of 4.5 miles of schedule 80, 4” pipe, welded joints, with 125 h.p. Gardner Denver pump which is to be rebuilt. New concrete vault with (2) 5 h.p. feeder pumps, feeding a 30,000 gallon tank which will need to be sleeved.
Two 20,000 gallon tanks for municipal (potable water) which will be periodically purged to the 95,000 gallon pool. Move 90,000 gallon tank from across the street to the existing rock pad above the portal. Install water service to the rest of the camp, with new septic tanks. A water treatment unit will be installed per Inyo County requirements. Install new drisco pipe to the Defiance and Thompson. A 10,000 gallon surge tank will be at the Thompson. Install fire control measures, sonic nozzles in the main haulage which will minimize water consumption in haulage and maintain industrial hygiene compliance.
The tank at the well site will need to be bullet proof, and a concrete vault to protect the pump and switch gear will need to be installed.
Water service will be installed to the dry, the lab, the dump pocket, blacksmith shop, recreation building, gas building, eight on site houses, and water to an onsite R.V. park.
Complete the water system.
B. Compressed air service: Install rotary screw compressors at the Defiance, Thompson, and Beron areas underground. Restore two of the Imperial 10 air compressors as back-up units with a closed loop cooling system. Install drisco pipe service to all areas with receivers. We will need to purchase drisco pipe welders.
Air service to the shop, blacksmith shop, lab, dry, recreation building will be established.
C. Re establishes electrical service to the project, which includes 4.5 miles of transmission line to the well with a substation. With a 350 kw substation at the Defiance portal. With 480 volt feeders to the lab, blacksmith shop, dry, lamp room, and dump pocket. An additional 150 kw substation at the Defiance decline, which will service the fan. An underground feed high voltage line moves the power to the Defiance substation at the Defiance winze.
Five additional power poles will bring the high voltage to the Thompson portal, where a high voltage cable will feed a new 250 kw substation, which will be located at the Thompson winze.
Additional power distribution is to be established to the Thompson winze, replacing the ones which were stolen in 2007.
A primary substation drops the voltage to 480 volt, feeding the camps and the 480 volt and 120 volt transformers.
Sufficient service is available to support a 350 ton per day mill at the site; there are also sufficient water rights. However when the onsite mill is approved, additional substations will be required.
D. The office was originally constructed in 1921 and requires new windows, heating, air conditioning, as well as minor plumbing and flooring. There is a 20’ x 25’ as well as two 10’ x 10’ fire proof vaults incorporated in the office for data protection.
Computers, large scanners/plotters, monitors, printers, memory storage will be necessary for the digitizing of the massive amounts of data that exists. This will also allow the relogs to be digitized as well as the budgeted 10,000 lineal feet of core data.
With a modern mine mapping software previous and new results of x-ray fluorescent sampling, fire assays, and ICP work will be digitized.
The updates to the office are necessary to protect the electronics and the estimated $58 million dollars of data currently on site.
E. The lab, the existing building will support a small pilot plant. Fire assay equipment is in place; however an AA machine, x-ray fluorescents, ICP, additional glass ware, and chemicals are needed. This allows for immediate results and grade control assuring that economically feasible ore is shipped.
F. The dry will incorporate necessary showers, lockers, a foremen’s’ office, and a lamp charging station. The dry will also have a large water heater, heating and air conditioning, first aid station, and emergency response equipment.
G. Blacksmith shop. The shop is for the repair, maintenance, and fabrication of ore cars, drills, locomotives, slushers, and support equipment used in the underground operations. Roof repair HVAC equipment, welding equipment, speciality tools, and a forge will be a necessity. A substantial supply of steel and a rough terrain forklift will be assigned to the shop.
H. Dump Pocket. The dump pocket will be fabricated to transfer ore from the ore cars to the semi trailers that transport the ore. The dump pocket will be expanded to incorporate a primary jaw, and a conveyor stockpiling ore on concrete containment adjacent to the pocket. A scale will ensure compliance with state laws and maximize capacity of all loads shipped. Care will be taken to ensure noise suppression and sonic dust control mitigates any dust problems.
I. The rail will be installed from the Defiance portal to the dump pocket, to the lab, to the blacksmith shop, to the recreation room, and to a new round house charging station, with an overhead crane to assist in swapping fully charged batteries with the discharged batteries used on the locomotives. A diesel locomotive will be on site for emergency use only, towing disabled battery locomotives to the charging station or the blacksmith shop as necessary.
J. The recreation room will be converted to the safety meeting room. All group employee interaction and training will take place here. A large projection television for safety film viewing, miners rights information, state and federal postings, and the safety offices will be located here. All MSHA, CAL OSHA Mine and Tunnel, and ATF&E information will be available here, as well as a complete MSDS log, and copies of the company’s safety manuals. A chain link fence starting south of the Managers house garage running downhill turning ninety degrees to the recreation room, then returning south again behind the lower housing area, turning then towards the mine dump will define the active mining area. Gates and electronic monitoring as well as motion detectors will ensure security within patented property, the newly filed buffer claims, and any optioned patents determined to be of value to the project.
K. Road repair and an encroachment modification on Utah Street will be the primary access to the mine; this is the easiest climb to the portal level. The road will fork with one fork to the safety (recreation room) the other fork is to the upper level where the machine shop, electrical, warehouse with procurement office, main office, four houses for employee use, the manager’s house, and the former cafeteria will be rehabbed and utilized in the operation of the mine. There are four houses below the recreation room that will also be rehabbed and rented to employees. The duplexes north of the recreation room will be demolished and a R.V. park will be built to accommodate employees with travel trailers.
L. The initial work underground including cleaning approximate 16,000 lineal feet of track, the rehab and recertification of the hoists, new switch gear, magazines for explosive storage, air doors, fire proofing combustible materials located near a source of ignition. Reconditioning and replacement of ventilation, fans, ducting, pressure washing of ribs and back with fresh white wash in lunch rooms and brake stations. Repair of the stations, tightening of timbers, barring down, and inspection of the existing underground workings including bolted restricted access to areas deemed inaccessible without additional work. Emergency stations and full MSHA, CAL OSHA compliance and acceptance will be a priority. Adoption of the twenty eight million dollar Bechtel Engineering Safety Program with updates will set the course for safe operations. New drills, locomotive batteries, chute doors with overflow protection and handle extensions and any other necessary improvements will be made.
M. Full metallurgical work up with special emphasis on Tungstic acid production. Differential floatation tests have been performed on the sulfide, further work on oxide ore, both floatation, chemical leach, and fractional distillation is needed.
N. Value based engineering and design incorporating good value used equipment with new equipment when required will ensure plant design within budgetary limitations. Designs for a tungstic acid circuit, differential floatation, at both the Darwin site and the Nevada location.
Engineering and reverse engineering of new ore hoisting equipment, granby cars, and support equipment will be pursued. Working with metallurgical experts plans will be developed for a chemical smelter for minor metal recovery.
O. Drilling, ten thousand lineal feet of core will prove the deep zinc scarns targets developed by Peter Hahn as well as the Newberry copper porphyry, and Wenzel bedded ore bodies. The drilling then shifts to an ongoing program, blocking out ore to 43-101 standards where required. All drill core data will be entered into a mine planning format allowing for development of future targets.
Conclusion: Essential services, establishment of these services will ensure that the initial production at the CMC mill is maximized while simultaneously working to permit both a Nevada mill site and a Darwin underground mill site. The Nevada permitting is more of a known equation, this ensures the implementation of higher production and profitability, while the California permitting is an unknown the additional $49.00 per ton profit from on site milling and the seemingly climate in Inyo County, towards mining this may bear fruit prior to the Nevada operation, allowing a shift from sulfide to oxide at the Nevada location. This would trigger the extension of the radio ore tunnel, day lighting at the Lucky Jim. An extension of the rail system back to the Defiance portal allowing for a doubling of the haulage capacity. Without the tungstic acid circuit you can expect about $8 Million per year net pretax profit, from the CMC operation. Forty one million dollars per year from a Nevada sulfide operation. The California on site mill would generate $48 M net pretax profit. If however in the future a chemical smelter were to be built taking full advantage of the minor metals under current prices this could generate $279 M net pretax profit.
As the tungstic acid market is on the rise and the price per pound exceeds $200.00 USD the cost of the circuit is nil compared to the increase of profitability during initial production, this is definitely worth pursuing. This summary of the plan is not complete, as I am trying to project the first stage only. The development of essential services, the start of permitting, the drilling of targets to increase book value, the planning , engineering, and metallurgical work to move forward with a large scale operation while simultaneously maintaining a limited but profitable first stage of production.