Montana Tunnels Mining Incorporated (MTMI) is 100% subsidiary of Elkhorn Goldfields LLC. The Montana Tunnels Mine and Diamond Hills mine were purchased from Apollo Gold Corporation in February 2010. Previous to the purchase, MTMI was operated as a 50:50 joint venture between Apollo Gold Corp. and Elkhorn Tunnels (a subsidiary of Elkhorn Goldfields) during the period September 2006 and April 2009. The purchase resulted in Elkhorn acquiring the remaining 50% of the assets previously held by Apollo.
Aerial view of Montana Tunnels
The Montana Tunnels gold, zinc, lead, and silver deposit is located about 5 miles west of Jefferson City, Montana. The name of the deposit is derived from two exploratory tunnels that were driven into the deposit about 100 years ago. The Montana Tunnels Mine had been in continuous operation between March 1987 and April 2009. MTMI consists of an open pit mine at the deposit, a 15,000-ton per day flotation plant and 130+ million ton capacity tailings facility, assay lab and all storage and maintenance facilities associated with the producing mine. Between the start of production in 1987 and the end of 2009 over 100 million tons of ore have been mined producing 1.7 million ounces gold, 31million ounces silver, 203,000 tons lead, and 550,000 tons zinc.
The current plan of operations for the L-pit mine was completed on December 8, 2008 and stockpiled ore was milled until April 30, 2009 at which time all mine operations were placed on care and maintenance. This phase of the operations is bonded for reclamation. The M-Pit, which is the next phase of mining, has had positive economic
Montana Tunnels mill
analysis conducted on only the Measured and Indicated material. A portion of the economically minable mineralized blocks within the M-Pit design are classified as a Probable Reserve as the only parameter currently lacking to classify these materials as Proven Reserves is a mining permit. A major amendment application with accompanying mine site design, geotechnical and supplemental studies was submitted to the Department of Environmental Quality in July, 2004 for M-Pit development. The mine extension proposal resulted in a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analysis. Favorable Records of Decision for the M-Pit amendment were received from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality on October 27, 2008 and from the US Bureau of Land Management on November 3, 2008.
