HUCKLEBERRY MINES LTD. An Overview

Transcription

1 HUCKLEBERRY MINES LTD. An Overview

2

3

4

5 Key Components of the Mine Plan Identification of potentially problematic waste materials and the provision to submerge them in the tailings impoundment. This preventive approach will ensure that these material are not exposed to the air and will not oxidize. Mining the Main Pit early provides storage of waste from the East Pit. There will be no exposed waste dumps at the end of the project. Huckleberry

6

7 NAG and PAG Rock NAG refers to non acid generating rock PAG refers to potentially acid generating rock. HML s ore control procedure is that all blasthole drill holes are sampled and assayed for copper and molybdenum content. These values are attached to the surveyed hole locations and copper values are developed using geostatistics and contoured into high Huckleberry

8 grade ore, low grade ore and ore to stockpile. In the waste areas, selected holes (1 in 5) are tested for sulfur content and their neutralization potential ratio (NPR) The NPR must be above 3 in volcanic rock and above 2 in intrusive rocks for the rock to be designated as NAG. A single hole or holes with a PAG NPR value in NAG rock will cause the surrounding holes to be tested and the PAG pocket clearly defined. Huckleberry

9 All material is carefully tracked and all of the operators know that PAG rock must go into the tailings impoundment. HML won the 2000 Jake MacDonald BC Reclamation Award for its exemplary monitoring and mine waste management plan to prevent the onset of acid rock drainage (ARD) and facilitate reclamation of the mine site. Huckleberry

10

11

12 Tailings Dam The dams have been constructed with an impervious clay-till core to minimize seepage. Currently, the dam is a closed system with water being recycled to the mill. The supernatant does meet the discharge quality criteria. Overflow from run-off will discharge from the pond after closure. Huckleberry

13

14

15

16

17 Reclamation HML s reclamation bond is $3 million to date. The end use is wild life habitat. At closure, all buildings will be removed and the site will be covered with native vegetation. The area surrounding Huckleberry is sub-alpine forest. Still today, we see bears, moose, foxes and other small forest animals.as all of the land is still in use, no land has been reclaimed. Huckleberry

18 Geology The deposit is a copper-molybdenum porphyry. The orebody is hosted in Jurassic volcanic rock (andesite) intruded by a Late Cretaceous granodiorite. The ore consists of the minerals chalcopyrite and molybdenite and is contained in fractures and veinlets. Huckleberry

19

20 Mining The ore at HML is extracted through conventional open pit methods. The Main Pit was mined out by April The East Pit is 900m long by 600m wide and 200m deep. The pit is being redesigned at $1.05 per pound copper price. To move back the highwall $2.00 per pound price is required. Huckleberry

21 Drilling Two BE 60R rotary drills, 25 and 29 years old, Availability 70%. 251mm bits holes 13.5m deep, bench height 12m. Patterns from 8 to 9.3 m square with the holes off-set on the next row. Powder factor about 0.18 kgs per tonne. Huckleberry

22

23

24

25 Loading Two P&H 2100 and one P&H 1900 cable shovels - 25 and 29 years old, availability is 87.5%, lowest cost units. One CAT 992 loader, 16 years old with 70,000 frame hours, availability 69% One Hitachi EX 1100 Backhoe, used mainly in dam construction. Huckleberry

26

27

28 Hauling Five CAT 777 haultrucks, ten years old with 86% availability (90 t capacity). Five Cat 785 haultrucks, five to 10 years old with 87% availability (140 t capacity.) Huckleberry

29

30

31 Milling

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45 Markets Copper concentrate is produced at a rate of about 11,500 tonnes per month and is shipped by 40 tonne B-trains to Stewart BC and shipped to Japan. The concentrate is 27% copper and contains 37,000 tonnes or 80 million pounds of copper on an annual basis. The gold and silver credits amount to 8,000 ounces of gold and 300,000 ounces of silver. Huckleberry

46 HML produces about a million pounds of molybdenum per year, which is hauled by truck to Vancouver and sold to a broker and shipped mostly to Europe. Huckleberry

47 Employment on site HML 211 employees Admin., supervision & accounting 28 Mine Ops. 70, Mine Mtce. 32 Mill Ops. 32, Mill Mtce. 27 Engineering & Metallurgy 9 Assay, warehouse & purchasing 11 Caterer 20, other contractors 5 Huckleberry

48 Benefits Average salary is $67,000 and every year the mine pays out $15 million in benefits and salaries. All operations personnel work four days on and four days off. Most maintenance personnel work that or 7 days on and 7 days off. All other personnel works Monday to Friday, four days on and three days off. Huckleberry

49 Community

50

51 Goods and Services Annual Expenditures $48 million Local communities $13 million Rest of BC $13.9 million Elsewhere in Canada $21 million Elsewhere in the World $0.1 million Huckleberry

52 Exploration HML has recently been reorganized under new management and there is renewed interest in exploration. Data from historical work has been compiled and two areas around the minesite warrant an aggressive exploration this summer. $0.5 million has been approved for Phase I. Huckleberry

53 Whiting Creek 31.6 x %Cu, 0.112%MoS 2 Within x %Cu, 0.043% MoS 2 Huckleberry

54 NE Extension Cu-Au in soils >200 ppm Cu DH % MoS 2 /24m DH %Cu.6m 1.045%Cu 16g/tAg.3m 0.43%Cu 7.2g/tAg/3m Huckleberry

55 >1000ppm Cu in soils NE target DH 17 (1970) 0.12%Mo/24m 0.08%Cu 47.5m 1018 buffer row , %Cu Trace? of E bounding fault Huckleberry

56 X Rock samples Noranda % Cu, 142ppb Au 0.12% Cu, 122.1g/t Ag. 675 ppb Au Huckleberry

57