Thompson Creek Metals’ (TSX:TCM) Mount Milligan mine, the first new greenfield major metals mine to be built in B.C. in more than a decade, is on schedule to begin initial production next month.
Full-scale commercial production is expected to begin by the end of 2013.
The $1.5 billion open-pit copper gold mine, located about 150 kilometres northwest of Prince George, is projected to produce an average of 81 million pounds of copper and 194,500 ounces of gold per day over the mine’s estimated 22-year lifespan.
Kevin Loughrey, chairman and CEO of Thompson Creek, told Business in Vancouver that construction crews are completing work on the building and commissioning the mill – the “finishing touches” on the development.
“Opening is imminent,” said Loughrey, in a phone interview from the company’s head office in Denver, Colorado.
“The work is essentially complete but for this last bit of fine tuning.”
Construction of Mount Milligan began in late 2010, after Thompson Creek bought the project in October 2010 from Terrane Metals for $600 million.
Mount Milligan isn’t Thompson Creek’s first B.C. project. The company also owns the Endako Mine, a molybdenum deposit located near Fraser Lake, east of Prince George. Thompson Creek ceased mining at Endako in 2012 – although it continued to process stockpiled ore at the mine – because of a downturn in the global molybdenum market. The company shouldered a $530 million writedown on Endako last year as a result.
Although Endako remains closed, Thompson Creek’s experience working in B.C., said Loughrey, helped foster an understanding of the province’s mining sphere and the challenges it currently faces, a lack of investment and exploration chief among them.
“We understand the province well and we understand this is a major event in the industry in B.C.,” said Loughrey.
“But we’re very pleased with the fact that Mount Milligan was done correctly and, hopefully, can help auger more projects in B.C.”
Mount Milligan is expected to employ 400 permanent staff. At the peak of construction in November 2012, more than 1,000 people worked on the project.
Jocelyn Fraser, a Vancouver-based member of the Mount Milligan project team, told BIV that Thompson Creek also employs three environmental monitors on site, two of whom are from the McLeod Lake Indian Band and the other from the Nak’azdli Band.
