Jan 3 2013
Revett Minerals Inc. provides an update on monitoring activities at its Troy Mine in northwest Montana.
All underground activities were suspended by the Company in mid December, 2012 following the assessment of unstable ground conditions in non active mining areas that the Company deemed unsafe for the continuance of day to day underground operations.
In the past two weeks, the Company has worked with The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to install seismic monitoring devices. Data collected over the past two weeks suggests that ground conditions have stabilized. Based on this information, the Company will seek to re-enter underground workings in order to complete inspections of underground infrastructure and equipment and to install further geophone monitoring devices. The Company will present an inspection and monitoring plan to MSHA this week for authorization. Company personnel will not be able to re-enter underground workings until MSHA has authorized the inspection and monitoring plan.
At this stage, we cannot give a firm date when operations will resume. While we have no reason to believe that main infrastructure or equipment has been damaged, we cannot be sure until an underground inspection has been made. The Company will continue to work with its geotechnical consultants along with Federal agencies such as MSHA and NIOSH in the assessment process and provide an update once a firm timeline has been established. The Company will provide 2013 operations guidance once a date to recommence operations has been set.
John Shanahan, President and CEO stated, "These geotechnical issues have presented a challenge over the past few weeks. We are looking to get back to production as quickly as possible, but we must follow prudent procedures to ensure that the resumption of underground activities is done correctly and safely. We thank everyone for their patience."
Source: http://www.revettminerals.com/