Name: Minto mine.
Location: The mine is located in central Yukon Territory, Canada.
Mine Owner/s: Minto Explorations, a 33% owned and 100% controlled subsidiary of Pembridge Resources.
Brief Description: The Minto mine is the only operating mine in the Yukon territory. It is a high-grade, permitted copper/gold mine with a mine life of four years as at January 2020.
Brief History: Minto Explorations was incorporated in 1993 and acquired the Minto project from a syndicate comprising Asarco and Falconbridge in the early 2000s. In 2005, Sherwood Copper Corporation acquired Minto Explorations and financed the development of the project into an operating mine. The first copper concentrate was shipped in 2007. In November 2008, Capstone acquired Sherwood Copper Corporation.
The Minto mine started as an openpit operation, supported by concurrent underground operation from 2014. The openpit operations were permanently closed in 2018, with ore being exclusively mined from underground. The mine was placed on temporary care and maintenance in October 2018. In June 2019, Pembridge Resources acquired Minto from Capstone Mining Corporation in June 2019 and restarted operations at the mine in October 2019.
Primary Metals: Copper.
Secondary Metals: Gold and silver.
Geology/Mineralisation: The Minto property is located within the Minto Copperbelt (formerly known as the Carmacks Copperbelt), a 42-km-long, north-west-trending series of copper/gold deposits and occurrences in central Yukon. These deposits are hosted within deformed and metamorphosed inliers engulfed by the intrusions of the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Minto pluton.
The Minto property area is underlain by the southern margin of the 204–to 195-million-year-old (Ma) Minto pluton, which comprises medium-to coarse-grained granite, biotite-hornblende granite to granodiorite and quartz monzonite.
The primary hypogene minerals are chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite and minor pyrite. Copper sulphide minerals occur mainly as disseminated grains, foliaform stringers and net-textured domains. Sulphide mineral content tends to increase with ductile deformation. Native gold, electrum and gold telluride main occur as inclusions in bornite. Coarse-free gold is locally found along late chloritic fractures, likely resulting from secondary enrichment from a hydrothermal even. Hypogene sulphide mineralisation is almost always associated with biotite alteration and magnetite.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at January 2020, were estimated at 2.36-million tonnes grading 1.68% copper, 0.6 g/t gold and 6 g/t silver.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at January 2020, were estimated at 15.4-million tonnes grading 1.4% copper, 0.5 g/t gold and 5 g/t silver.
Mining Method: Underground – modified room-and-pillar longhole, open stope retreat.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Minto has all the key infrastructure in place, including a 4 000 t/d mill.
Prospects: In January 2020, a new exploration programme started, comprising drilling and a magnetic survey. Pembridge wants to add and expand existing reserves through the programme.
The first phase of drilling will result in 53 holes being drilled over 14 000 m in the already identified deposits at Copper Keel West, Copper Keel North, Copper Keel South and Minto East II.
Contact Details:
Pembridge Resources
Tel +44 207 917 2968
Email info@pembridgeresources.com
Website https://www.pembridgeresources.com