TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner Imperial Metals has recalled 44 of the 85 employees that were laid off at the Huckleberry mine, in British Columbia, to build a tailings dam and conduct limited openpit mining, should the schedule allow.
The miner, which held a 50% stake in the operation, had halted mining operations in January as a result of weakening copper prices.
The company advised that these actions would provide operational readiness in the future.
The mine had been processing ores from stockpile and was expected to continue until the end of August. Should copper prices not have improved by the third quarter, the entire operation would be placed on care and maintenance.
Employees at the mine had demonstrated a strong commitment to safety and, to date, had achieved 487 days without a lost-time injury accident. This commitment to safety was recently recognised by the Ministry of Energy and the Mines Edward Prior Award for Safety in 2015.
HML owns and operates the Huckleberry mine. Imperial owns a 50% interest in HML, and the remaining 50% interest is owned by the Japan Group, comprising Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Dowa Mining and Furukawa.
Imperial also announced that it expected the sixth concentrate shipment this year from its new Red Chris mine, in north-west British Columbia, to sail from the Port of Stewart this week.