The company plans to utilise the existing infrastructure to the maximum. Open pit mining begun in 1968 and mine was closed in 1996 due to lack of low strip ratio reserves, increasing production costs and necessary capital expenditures. The deposit was mined by underground methods during 1923 to 1957. Production continued from Pit1 and 3 until the mine’s closure. In 1988, Cassiar Mining corporation took over Similco Mines Ltd. Granby was acquired by Newmount Corporation in 1972. Currently, these are Pit1 and Pit 3 areas. Granby extracted 31.5Mt of ore with a grade of 1.08% copper mainly from underground excavations. Granby Consolidated Mining acquired the property in 1923 and developed a milling facility in Allenby adjoining Princeton. “Exploration begun at Copper Mountain in 1884.”Įxploration begun at Copper Mountain in 1884. Concrete for the concentrate stock and filtrate tanks has been poured and works on the assay lab has also begun. The mill was erected by mid 2010 and is undergoing installation of pieces of the exterior cladding. Gisborne Industrial Construction was chosen as a general contractor to start mill foundation work subjected to government approval on 3 September 2009. The changes included more copper production in the initial years and higher mine life. It resulted in a few changes to project’s production plan. The results of the feasibility study was announced in July 2008.
Further, a new milling facility was developed on project property to integrate the operation facilities close to mining areas. A 138kV power line provides service to existing facilities at site. The project property owns water licences sufficient to support operations ranging between 25,000 and 50,000tpd. The project site has already developed with substantial infrastructure supporting 25,000tpd open pit operation. Open pit miningĪn independent feasibility study in 2008 confirmed the possibility of restarting a past open pit.ĭuring October 2008, the company announced the go ahead of a development of the Copper Mountain project.
The second-phase concentrates on deep drilling of targets below the pits.
#COPPER MOUNTIAN UPGRADE#
In the first phase, additional drill information is used to obtain a detailed mine design and upgrade the mine optimisation in the Oriole deposit and Pit 2 zone. To assess adjoining area and test the mineralisation at depth, a two-phased 10,000m drilling programme began in August 2010. < The company identified a potential Super pit and focused on existing pit 1, pit 2 and pit 3. In addition, a drill data density for assisting upgrading of classification during resource estimation was also conducted. The drilling and exploration programme’s focus was to determine a new merged pit known as super pit which is more wide, deep and big to access additional mineralisation at depth. At the end of 2007, the company also concluded Titan deep 24 penetration geophysical survey on 13km square area over exiting pits.ĬMMC completed drill exploration programme in 20 by drilling around 106,000m.
#COPPER MOUNTIAN VERIFICATION#
The drilling programme was started in January 2007, focusing on providing additional verification of historical drill data, testing areas between the existing open pits. The deep porphyry targets include Deep Penetration Titan 24 Geophysical survey, which was completed assisting deeper exploration for underground zones of higher grade. The second set of targets included Virginia, Mill Zone, Alabama deposit, Oriel deposit, Voigt Zone and in Alabama and Copper Mountain trends. Initial targets included testing historical resources within the existing pits and the areas between 1, 2 and 3 in the saddle zone area, which were untested.
“The Copper Mountain project is situated 15km south-west of Princeton, British Columbia, Canada.”ĬMMC worked on three-pronged exploration strategies such as initial targets, secondary targets and deep porphyry targets.
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