40 www.resourceworld.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016 MINING TRUE NORTH GEMS INC. [TGX-TSXV] has started open pit mining operations at the Aappaluttoq ruby and pink sapphire deposit situated on tidewater about 250 km south of the capital, Nuuk, in south- western Greenland. “On behalf of True North Gems Inc., True North Gems Greenland A/S and all our working partners it is my great plea- sure to announce that we have broken ground at Aappaluttoq,” stated Nicholas Houghton, President and CEO. “During a very tough period for the mining indus- try with many financial challenges, it is deeply gratifying to see everyone’s hard work materialize and for True North’s shareholders to see mining start.” LNS Greenland (LNSG), joint venture partner at the Aappaluttoq Mine, has been contracted as mine operator and is earning a 27% interest. Their Norwegian and Greenlandic based technical team have submitted mining extraction plans to the boards of True North and True North Gems Greenland A/S, and received approval for pit operations to begin. LNSG is a highly experienced Norway- based mining company and is responsible for the production of rough gemstones at the mine facility. True North staff upgrades the concentrates into clean and fully graded gemstone sales parcels using their extensive gemological experience. “In 2004 we reviewed some data and literature previously compiled regarding a red corundum outcrop in Greenland and subsequently planned a site visit,” said Houghton. Rubies and sapphires are variet- ies of corundum. “After setting foot on the land and examining it, we realized there was good potential for an economic deposit. In Greenland there is little overburden so we could see the geological trends, in this case, a band of altered material that was the host rock for the corundum, consequently the source of the gems.” In 2005, the company returned for a longer program and found gem-quality material that warranted an exploration delineation program. “We drilled the resource upon which the Pre-Feasibility Study is based,” explained Houghton. “We extracted a bulk sample of 260 tonnes from surface. Drilling down to 120 metres in depth, we learned that the consistency and quality was there based on a gemological assays, that is, high-gem, mid-gem and commercial-gem quality in both pink sapphire and ruby.” Houghton remarked that it wasn’t necessary to take a bigger bulk sample because that would have been full-out mining. “We did enough to confirm a resource and then went into the permit- ting stage,” he said. Drilling and blasting a gemstone deposit is different from, say, mining cop- per or gold. “We drill a row of perforation holes and carry out a very soft blast which is more like a crack that weakens the ore- body,” said Houghton. “You make sure the wave of percussion exits away from the orebody, which is then extracted in blocks. The orebody itself is not blasted. It’s the strip on the outside that is blasted so it becomes a quarry operation where we ‘surgically’, so to speak, remove the gem- stone-bearing material.” Perhaps surprisingly to Southerners, work can be done year-round in Greenland. “We have only done our Pre- Feasibility Study looking at a six-month operation; however, we can operate year- round if required,” noted Houghton. “We actually constructed the mine all through the winter. They are very hardy people in Greenland who know how to work in Arctic conditions. For our joint venture partner and Arctic operator, LNS-Greenland, this is normal working conditions for them.” The processing plant and gemstone recov- ery system is being shipped to Greenland and the planned Q4/2015-Q1/2016 extrac- tion will create a sufficient ore stockpile to feed the plant once it has been commis- sioned. Planned waste rock removal work True North Gems mining Greenland rubies and pink sapphires by Ellsworth Dickson A selection of polished rubies and pink sapphires from the Aappaluttoq Mine 250 km south of Nuuk, southwestern Greenland. Photo courtesy True North Gems Inc.