Name and Location
Schaft Creek copper/gold project, British Columbia, Canada.

Client
Schaft Creek Joint Venture, comprising Teck Resources (75%) and Copper Fox (25%).

Project Description
The project will be a conventional openpit truck-and-shovel operation using large-scale equipment to gain economies of scale.

Ore and waste will be drilled by diesel- and electric-powered rotary drills and blasted using bulk explosives.

Mill feed and waste will be loaded onto 227 t and 354 t mine trucks by 80 t electric cable shovels, 50 t diesel hydraulic shovels and a 35 t wheel loader.

Waste will be placed in waste storage facilities adjacent to the pit. Ore will be hauled to the primary crushers located near the pit rim and then conveyed to the mill site in the adjacent valley.

Low-grade run-of-mine (RoM) ore will be stockpiled south of the openpit and midgrade RoM ore will be stockpiled within the west dump footprint.

Bulldozers will cut roads into competent rock from the top down to provide access for mining equipment to the upper benches. The bulldozer development will be con-ducted in two stages – the south phase during the predevelopment years and the north phase during the first three years of production.

The production schedule is based on feeding a 130 000 t/d conventional copper concentrator, which will be located about 8 km north-east of the pit. The reserves will be mined in six phases during pit development and will not include the initial conveyor development cut.

The processing plant will consist of:
• primary crushing at the mine site, with conveyors, including one overland conveyor, delivering ore to the plant;
• a crushed-ore stockpile;
• a main processing plant, including two primary grinding circuits, consisting of semiautogenous and ball mills, as well as pebble crushers (SABC circuits), two copper/gold/silver/molybdenum bulk flotation circuits, one copper/gold/silver/molybdenum separation circuit, including molybdenum concentrate leaching to reduce copper/lead contents, and concentrate dewatering and
• tailings disposal.

Two gyratory crushers, operating as the primary crushing units, will reduce the RoM particle size to about 80% passing 120 mm.

The crushed ore will be conveyed to a stockpile with a live capacity of 120 000 t. The ore will then be reclaimed in two parallel lines to two SABC circuits to further reduce particle size to 80% passing 150 μm.

There will be four trains of copper/gold/silver/molybdenum rougher/scavenger flotation. The products from the primary grinding circuits will feed to the rougher/scavenger flotation circuits, which will produce a high-grade rougher concentrate and a lower-grade rougher/scavenger concentrate. The two concentrates will be separately reground, then upgraded in three stages of cleaner flotation to produce a copper/gold/silver/molybdenum bulk flotation concentrate. The bulk concentrate will be further treated by flotation to produce a molybdenum concentrate and a copper/gold/silver concentrate. The copper/gold/silver concentrate will contain about 28% copper. The molybdenum concentrate is expected to contain about 50% molybdenum after the flotation concentrate is leached using the chloride leaching procedure to reduce copper and lead content.

The final flotation concentrates will be thickened and then pressure-filtered to a moisture content of about 9%, while the molybdenum concentrate will be further dewatered by drying it to a moisture content of about 4% to 5%.

Value
The project is estimated at C$3.26-billion.

Duration
Commercial production is expected in January 2020.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Copper Fox Metals, tel +1 403 264 2820, fax +1 403 264 2920 or email info@copperfoxmetals.com.