In May 2009, Atna announced the restart of gold production at the wholly owned Briggs Mine in Inyo County, California. The Company expects to produce approximately 213,000 ounces of gold with an annual average full year production rate that ranges from 40,000 to 50,000 ounces per year during the years 2010 to 2013 with residual gold recovery in 2014. 

View, NI 43-101 Technical Report

The Briggs Mine, NI 43-101 Technical Report authored by Mr. Alan Noble of Ore Reserve Engineering (Qualified Person) and Mr. Michael Read of Chlumsky, Armbrust, & Meyer LLC, recommended the re-start and further exploration for additional reserves. The current reserves at the project are sufficient for a mine life of approximately 6 years with additional potential outside the current pit design. The study estimates that the project has open pit proven and probable reserves containing 267,000 ounces of gold grading 0.021oz/ton, a 77 percent increase over the previous reserve estimate, dated May 8, 2008. An additional 650,367 tons of inferred resource containing 9,510 ounces of gold are contained within the pit shell limits, but are not included in the reserves.

Gold production and sales for 2009 are expected to be approximately 15,000 ounces. Life-of-mine cash cost and full cost is projected to be $468 and $587 per ounce of gold, respectively. Life-of-mine pre-tax cash flow at a gold price of $750 is approximately $36 million net of capital recapture including sustaining capital and project closure costs. Cash flow increases by over $20 million for every $100 increase in gold price over the life of the mine.

The report details an estimate of mineral reserves and mineral resources, which are summarized in the tables below.

1. Gold price of US$750 per ounce (2009 dollars).
2. Strip ratio of 2.2 tons of waste per ton of ore.
3. Included within total mineral resource.
4. Internal incremental economic cutoff grade of 0.007 oz/ton.
5. All reserves are included within the Briggs permit boundary; GT South pushback requires modification of reclamation plan for mining.

1. Proven and probable reserves are included in the above resource.

Definitions used are consistent with those adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") Council in December 2005, as amended, and prescribed by the Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 and Form 43-101F1, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The measured and indicated resources stated above include reserves, which are a sub-set of resources. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves.

Briggs Exploration

In late 2008 and into 2009, Atna evaluated exploration targets that may extend the project's mine-life. One of the targets, the Briggs Main Deep ("BMD") zone has now been cut by 22 drill holes. With the completion of the second phase of drilling, mineralization has now been intersected in drill holes over a north-south distance of 1,000 feet and an east-west distance of 750 feet. Atna is currently modeling the BMD zone to estimate the tonnage and grade of the new mineralization. Thickness of the sub-horizontal mineralized zone varies significantly within the drilled area ranging from 25 feet in the southern most intercepts to over 250 feet in the northern portion of the zone. The BMD mineralization remains open to the east and north.The mineralization comes within 40 to 50 feet of the $750 ounce per gold design pit bottom. The BMD remains open for expansion to the north, south and east of the current intercepts.

Briggs Main Deep 3D video showing mineralized zone, drill hole intercepts and current planned pit design.
Briggs Main Deep 3D Image

Outside of the Briggs Mine permit area, Atna controls four exploration targets; Cecil R, Suitcase, Mineral Hill and Jackson, all within the Briggs area claim block. All of these projects have seen significant drilling and have historic mineral inventories; however the Cecil R property is the most advanced of these projects.

In February 2009, Atna completed a 23 hole program at the Cecil R project bringing the drill hole total at the project to 94 holes (21,956 feet). The program successfully extended mineralization 700 feet to the south and defined the western and eastern limits of the mineralization within the known mineral horizon.

Briggs Mine Photo Gallery Click to view a selection of photos from Briggs Mine.

Briggs History and Geology

The Briggs Mine is located in Inyo County, California about 50 miles east of the town of Ridgecrest, California. The Briggs property consists of 198 unpatented and two patented mining lode claims, and one patented and 18 unpatented millsite claims that together cover a total area of approximately 4,480 acres.

The Panamint Mountains trend north-northwest for approximately 80 miles and average about 16 miles in width. The range is flanked by the grabens of the Panamint Valley on the west and Death Valley on the east. The western flank of the Panamint Range is underlain by rocks that vary in age from Precambrian to recent and that have been modified by several tectonic and metamorphic events. The rocks have been deformed by at least two folding episodes and were intruded during the mid-Mesozoic time by granitic to dioritic intrusions. Shearing and hydrothermal activity focused in low-angle structures as well as vertical extensional fault zones, depositing silica, Ca-Mg-Fe carbonates (silica-carbonate alteration), and pyrite with gold and traces of chalcopyrite.

Both gold mineralization and wall rock alteration are controlled by large-scale and micro-scale structures. They are responsible for rock preparation of an otherwise generally unsuitable host in the form of the quartz-feldspar gneiss. The most obvious structure, the Goldtooth fault, was a major conduit for ore-bearing fluids. The Briggs ore bodies are disseminated replacement style deposits. The alteration-mineralization displays a remarkably simple assemblage of gold, disseminated pyrite, carbonate (usually ferroan dolomite), and silica (+/-) sericite. Styles range from broadly disseminated at Briggs Main and Briggs North to structurally controlled and partially replaced host rock at Gold Tooth and Briggs North underground.

The Briggs drill-hole database consists of 985 drill holes (including 71 holes at Cecil-R and 34 holes at the Jackson areas) with a total footage of 28,543.3 feet drilled at Briggs, 22,056 feet drilled at Cecil-R, and 14,162 feet at the Jackson prospect. Cecil-R and Jackson are located to the north of Briggs.

From 1996 to 2004, Briggs produced gold by heap leaching both crushed and uncrushed (run-of-mine) material placed on leach pads. A total of 23.5 million tons of material grading 0.031 oz Au/t containing nearly 740,000 ounces of gold was placed on the leach pads. A total of 51.6 million tons of waste have been mined, indicating an overall stripping ratio of 2.186:1 over the life of the mine.

The Briggs Mine gold recovery process is conventional heap leach. Crushed or run-of-mine ore is placed on the leach pads and leach solution is recirculated between the ore and the gold adsorption recovery columns. Gold is adsorbed onto the carbon and then desorbed from the carbon into a stripping solution. Electrowinning removes the gold from the stripping solution onto stainless steel mesh, forming sludge. The sludge is then smelted and refined into gold doré and sold. The Briggs refinery typically produces a doré of 70% gold and 20% silver.