Name of the Project
Lalor copper/gold mine project.

Location
Manitoba, Canada.

Client
Hudbay Minerals.

Project Description
Hudbay has increased the mineral reserves and resources for its Lalor mine and nearby satellite deposits, and has a new mine plan that includes the processing of gold and copper/gold ore at the company’s New Britannia mill.

Lalor’s mineral reserves have increased in situ-contained gold by 65%, copper by 23%, zinc by 11% and silver by 15%. Total proven and probable reserves are estimated at 13.68-million tonnes grading 4.46% zinc, 3.78 g/t gold, 0.7% copper and 26.11 g/t silver. The updated resource model at Lalor includes 5.9-million tonnes of inferred mineral resources.

The revised mine plan for Lalor supports a ten-year mine life, based solely on proven and probable reserves, and uses the existing mining capacity of 4 500 t/d at the mine for the first six years of the mine plan, although the Lalor production shaft has the potential to hoist at higher throughput rates.

The production plan has the copper/gold-rich ore feeding a refurbished New Britannia mill starting in 2022 at an average feed rate of 1 100 t/d at 6.7 g/t gold and 1.2% copper for seven years based on the current reserve estimate. During the first five years of operation with New Britannia (2022 to 2026), Lalor is estimated to produce about 140 000 oz/y of gold.

The New Britannia mill is expected to achieve gold recoveries of about 93%, compared with current gold recoveries of about 53% at the Stall mill.

Between 2019 and 2021, the Stall mill is expected to process about 3 500 t/d, and about 1 000 t/d of Lalor base metal ore is expected to be transported to the Flin Flon mill for processing. Based on the current reserves, starting in 2022, Stall mill throughput will gradually decrease from about 3 200 t/d to about 1 800 t/d. Hudbay has also identified several satellite deposits in the Snow Lake region that could provide additional feed for New Britannia and Stal.

Included in the project is the addition of a new flotation building, new crushers, a screen deck, a flotation circuit, a thickener for the copper concentrate, a filter press, an acid wash vessel, reagent packages, a lime silo, instrumentation systems, transformers and an emergency generator. In addition, two new pipelines will transport thickened tailings from New Britannia to Stall, while reclaimed water and copper concentrate will flow from Stall to New Britannia. This arrangement will facilitate environmental monitoring, use the paste plant efficiently and reduce the moisture content of the copper concentrate produced at Hudbay’s Snow Lake operations.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
An estimated investment of C$95-million will be required between 2019 and 2021 for the refurbishment of the New Britannia mill, including the addition of a copper flotation and dewatering circuit and a pipeline to direct the tailings to the existing Anderson facility.

Duration
The New Britannia development plan aims to complete detailed engineering by February 2020, environmental permitting in April 2020 and construction activities between June 2020 and August 2021, with plant commissioning and ramp-up occurring during the fourth quarter of 2021.

Latest Developments
Hudbay spent C$14-million on major airborne and ground geophysical surveys in 2018, as well as on surface exploration drilling in the Flin Flon and Snow Lake areas. This work was instrumental in identifying several base metal and gold targets that are to be tested in 2019, with a comparable exploration budget.

In parallel, the company plans to spend about C$4-million on in-mine exploration at Lalor, to convert inferred resources to indicated mineral resources and add additional inferred mineral resources in base metal and gold-rich mineralisation. Hudbay will continue to advance engineering studies on Lalor and its satellite deposits to continue increasing the tonnage of the mineral reserve estimates and the estimated operating life of the Snow Lake processing facilities at or near full capacity.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Hudbay Minerals, tel +1 416362 8181, fax +1 416362 7844 or email info@hudbayminerals.com.