Nord’s Gowganda tailings near Cobalt: project economics and design notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Nord Precious Metals Mining has defined 1.85 million tonnes of historical tailings grading 47.4 g/t silver for 2.81 million oz. indicated at its Gowganda project in northeastern Ontario, using a 10 g/t cut-off and assuming $65/oz silver, C$17/t operating cost and 82% recovery. The Main and South tailings plus two outflow areas lie about 100 km west of Nord’s TTL Laboratories plant in Cobalt, within the historic Cobalt-Gowganda silver belt that produced more than 60 million oz. from Gowganda alone. Nord is advancing engineering, metallurgy, water management and permitting towards a mineral recovery operation intended to fund wider exploration at Castle, Siscoe-O’Brien, Millerett and Castle East.
Technical Brief
- Historical tailings resource aligns with a 2011 GeoVector estimate of 1.94 Mt at 47.5 g/t Ag.
- Earlier work used 764 auger, drive-pipe and sonic holes totalling 3,012 m drilled between 1981–2000.
- Nord’s new model incorporates 2011 and 2018 sampling/drilling plus updated surface mapping and 3D interpretation.
- Tailings lie near past-producing Miller Lake-O’Brien and Siscoe mines, within the historic Gowganda satellite camp.
- Nord’s TTL Laboratories processing facility in Cobalt is approximately 100 km east of the Gowganda tailings.
- Pre-submission consultations with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks began in July for mineral recovery permitting.
- Silver price volatility is material: spot near US$64.80/oz after a January spike to US$121.60/oz.
Our Take
With Nord Precious Metals Mining valued at about C$22.7 million against an indicated 2.8 million oz. silver in Gowganda tailings, the market is currently assigning a relatively low in-situ value per ounce, which suggests upside is highly leveraged to demonstrating low-cost reprocessing at the TTL Laboratories facility 100 km away.
Within our 1266 Mining stories, tailings reprocessing pieces tagged under Projects and Sustainability are still a minority compared with greenfield builds, so Gowganda’s 1.85 million tonnes of historical tailings being revisited at current silver prices signals growing technical and ESG interest in legacy camps like the Cobalt–Gowganda district.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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