TSX- and NYSE-listed Taseko Mines has invited public comment on its commercial copper production facility, in Arizona, up to September 11.
This follows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality issuing the company a draft aquifer protection permit for the Florence Copper commercial production facility.
The protection permit is one of two key permits required to advance the project to commercial production.
Development of the project is being performed in two phases – the first phase is a production test facility, which is followed by the second phase commercial facility.
Taseko is now advancing the permit amendment process to transition the project to the commercial production facility, which includes an expanded wellfield and solvent extraction and electrowinning plant that will produce an average of 85-million pounds of copper a year, over its 20-year life.
“The issuance of this important permit is a confirmation by the state regulator that the Florence Copper in-situ mining process is environmentally safe. We have proven this over the past 18 months while operating the test facility within all the stringent conditions set out in the current permit.
“We fully expect that following the 30-day public comment period, the department will be positioned to quickly issue the final permit,” says Taseko CEO Russel Hallbauer.
The company has completed a full evaluation of data collected from the test wellfield for the facility over the last 18 months. The test facility has successfully demonstrated the company’s ability to produce high-quality copper cathode, within stringent environmental guidelines, while confirming project economics.
Hallbauer states that many of the modelled assumptions on the facility have been validated and the company has used the data to develop strategies for solution chemistry, flow rates, reverse flow and the use of well packers for targeting solution flows.
“The hydrogeological model has been updated using the data collected over the past 18 months and is being used to refine our operating plan for the commercial phase,” Hallbauer continues.
With all of the required data in hand, Taseko has decided to wind down the production phase of the test facility and start with rinsing the small section of the orebody where the wellfield has been operating.
“Timing of these activities is expected to mesh well with the overall project timeline and will provide our operating team with additional site specific experience,” says Hallbauer.