The CIM-NB Branch hosted a Technical Talk by Christopher Zahovskis, President and CEO, Northcliff Resources Ltd., on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton Campus. Chris presented “The Sisson Project: a strategic opportunity for New Brunswick” and outlined the status of the project review, the value added aspects of the project and what the mine will mean for the province in terms of employment and economics.

  
The Sisson Project is located in central New Brunswick, approximately 100 kilometres northwest of Fredericton by road. It is a near surface tungsten and molybdenum deposit with a projected mine life of 27 years.  It will entail a capital investment of CAD $579 million and it is estimated that there will be direct employment of about 300 people in New Brunswick during operations and up to 500 during the construction phase. Sisson Project facilities will include an open pit mine, a processing plant to produce tungsten and molybdenum concentrates, an ammonium paratungstate (APT) plant, a tailings storage facility, and ancillary buildings including offices, shops and warehouses.

Mr. Zahovskis illustrated how installing the APT plant will substantially enhance the local employment and economic activity associated with the project, but also will improve the economic viability of the operation based on the current and projected worldwide value and demand for tungsten.  It will be the first APT plant in Canada.

There was a broad cross-section of the community present at the event, from academics and students to regulators and consultants, contractors, geologists and local citizens, which made for interesting questions.  Due to the interest in the operation, Mr. Zahovskis answered questions for well over a half hour with topics ranging from processing details to closure bonding.  He also met personally with several participants afterwards. 
 
Chris Zahovskis is a mining engineer from Queen's University with over 30 years' experience. He began his career with Cominco Ltd. where he spent 17 years in a variety of engineering, production, project development and management roles including the start-up of a gold operation in NW British Columbia and an early stage gold-copper development in Turkey.

 
This was followed by nine years with Inco Limited where he was the Vice President responsible for the Mining, Mi lling, Smelting and Refining operations in Thompson, Manitoba and the early development of a nickel laterite project in New Caledonia.

 

He joined the HDI group in March 2010 as the Chief Operating Officer for Continental Minerals. 
Over the years, Mr. Zahovskis has worked in gold, silver, base metals, potash and nickel laterite in Canada as well as in Turkey, Indonesia, Australia, New Caledonia and China. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in strategic leadership and operations, project development, green field start up and due diligence assessments and is the CEO of the Sisson Project for Northcliff Resources Ltd.