Photo by: Capstone Mining
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based Capstone Mining on Monday reported that it had received an amended quartz mining licence for the Minto North deposit, but added that it had not received the Yukon Water Board’s water-use licence (WUL) amendment, which was required to start prestripping of Capstone's Minto North pit.
The TSX-listed base metals producer pointed out that the 2014 mine plan submitted in the licence applications called for prestripping of the Minto North openpit to start in September. The delay had now forced it to bring forward fully permitted underground ore from Area 118, starting later this month, to maintain full mill output and partially offset the 2015 shortfall in ore from the deposit.
Capstone explained that underground mining and milling operations were not affected and output guidance at Minto for 2014 remained unchanged. The mill would process underground ore and stockpile for the remainder of the year as planned.
While the delay in starting prestripping of Minto North was not expected to impact on Minto output in 2015, the most significant production from Minto North would shift from 2015 to 2016.
As a result of the delay in prestripping, the surface mining contractor would be downsizing its crew at Minto, affecting about 50 people. This downsizing was in addition to the 44 jobs affected at the surface mining contractor in January, when Minto slowed openpit mining to better align with the expected permitting timeline.
Following the downsizing by the surface mining contractor, total direct and contract employment at Minto would be about 250 people. Capstone's 171 employees and present underground mining contract employees were not affected.
"We are pleased to have received our quartz-mining licence amendment; however, we believe the most prudent course of action is to delay the Minto North prestripping until we receive our WUL. The most regrettable result is job losses at our surface mining contractor," Capstone president and CEO Darren Pylot said.
The Minto mine started operations in 2007 with a six-year mine life from the main pit, the only known ore deposit at that time. Since then, successful exploration had prolonged the mine life by nine years to 2021, assuming permits were received.
Under the regulatory process in Yukon, new permits were required each time additional reserves were brought into the mine plan. Capstone applied to the Yukon Environmental Socio-Economic Assessment Board (YESAB) for all remaining identified copper reserves on the property in July last year and the YESAB had approved the proposed extension of the operation in April. Capstone applied for the amended licences on July 2.