Golden Dawn: 18K tonnes will be produced at Greenwood Precious Metals project in 2018

East portal into the Lexington Mine. — Photo courtesy Golden Dawn Minerals Inc.

Wolf Wiese CEO of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., provides the following update on activities being completed to bring the Lexington Mine and Greenwood Processing Plant on-stream.  The Company is aiming to initiate trial mining in August of 2018, then from October through December, mining and processing of 18,000 tonnes of material. 

The Company is working diligently to meet all conditions of existing permits to proceed to production.  New conditions were recently added by the Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Environment, requiring new consultants and additional staffing for GOM.  Many new regulations have been put in place since the mines and plant were constructed in 2008 to improve environmental and safety standards and upgrades are required to some of the infrastructure.  BC has one of the highest safety and environmental standards in the world.

Work Completed at the Lexington Mine:

De-watering

The Lexington mine was successfully de-watered in early January.  Once the de-watering phase was completed the mine contractor was released and the Company hired its own mining crew to save costs.  Operational pumping is now underway and is being maintained by Company employees.  For the past two weeks the mine area has been in the middle of the spring thaw, with snow melting and groundwater inflow to the mine peaking.  The mine crew is on duty to maintain the pumps.

Mine Services

Work is progressing on building a new entrance for the West Portal.  The old portal entrance that had collapsed was removed and the surface area cleaned of loose material.  Overburden was stripped back and stockpiled for later reclamation.  New mine timbers were received, and timber sets were constructed for installation outside the portal.  The existing vent raise was retimbered and new ladders installed.

A new roof was built for the mine mechanic shop and a temporary power generator was installed.  A mine mechanic was hired and started work on rebuilding the underground equipment fleet. Mine personnel carriers were refurbished, and fire suppression systems were installed on the equipment.  Most of the fleet is in relatively good condition and can be refurbished with minimal effort.  New engines are required to comply with new standards for underground mines. Other services, including a portable generator, compressor, mine office, mine dry and toilet facilities were installed at the East Portal to facilitate de-watering.

Technical

The main effort currently is on-going technical work including geological mapping and sampling, geotechnical assessment, and mine engineering.

Geological mapping is underway in the previously mined areas that are still accessible.  This work involves washing the workings and detailed recording of rock types, mineralized zones and fault structures.  To date, 14 stope areas have been mapped out of a total of 17 that are accessible.  Chip sampling has been conducted in the areas mapped, with the first batch of samples dispatched to the assay laboratory in April.  The results of this work will be to understand the controls on the mineralization, to aid grade control efforts when mining, and to provide data for refinement of the resource model.

At the same time, all the results from past mining and exploration of the property are being reviewed.  Exploration targets for diamond drilling have been identified and permit applications for exploration have been submitted for the Lexington, Golden Crown, JD and Phoenix areas.

A geotechnical consultant was engaged to prepare a Ground Control Management Plan.  Testing of rock bolts and geotechnical mapping was done in the mine.  Initial parameters were supplied to the mine engineering consultant for input into the mining plan.

A geotechnical engineer was also engaged to prepare a waste rock management plan.  This will determine how mine waste is classified and stored at surface.

A mine engineering consultancy was engaged to prepare an initial mine plan based on the resource model.  This is a more detailed review than the PEA study, which considers more accurate mining costs, application of different mining methods in separate areas, and mining dilution based on individual stope blocks.  The output will be a tentative schedule for mine development and production.

Work Planned at the Lexington mine:

The next tasks remaining to be completed before mining at Lexington can proceed include the following:

• Rock bolting in existing drifts to secure ground support;
• Complete the West Portal refurbishment;
• Install mine ventilation and electrics;
• Re-establish the underground rescue station;
• Move power and compressed air to West Portal;
• Install new office trailer for technical staff;
• Install or refurbish larger mine dry;
• Complete wiring and insulating the mine maintenance shop;
• Acquire sufficient mine rescue equipment for full mining crew;
• Repair of underground explosives and detonator magazines, remobilization and stocking of surface explosives/detonator magazines;
• Complete updates to permit (Environmental Management System, Mine Plan, Ground Control, Waste Dump, etc);

Work is also being done to ready the Greenwood process plant for start-up, including:

• Installation of new offices and washroom trailers;
• Health and safety audits and programs;
• Updates to permit for Environmental Management, mine plan, closure plan and new installations;
• Review and approval of existing electrical and mechanical installations;
• Geotechnical design for permitting an upgrade of the facility to 400 TPD;
• Staffing;

In addition to providing mill feed in September, the mine will also produce a bulk sample of material that will be crushed at the Zip mill.  A portion of this material will be shipped to Kentucky for further testing of pre-concentration sorting.

Technical disclosure in this news release has been approved by Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and Chief Operating Officer of the Company.

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