A new era
Fast forward to 2006 ; copper prices were soaring to new highs and Jim O ’ Rourke ’ s Compliance Coal had an option to purchase the Copper Mountain property . The project was reviewed and a new company , Copper Mountain Mining Corp . was formed to explore , and if successful , ultimately mine the area .
The initial exploration work was successful and plans were laid for a new mining era at Copper Mountain . A two and half year , + 100,000m drilling program , guided by the results from a Quantec Titan24 geophysical survey was successful in expanding resources from around 100Mt to greater than 500Mt ( in all categories ).
The reserve pit contains 211Mt grading 0.36 percent copper , 0.11g / t gold and 1.6g / t silver , enough for 17 years of production at
35,000 t / day , although conversion of resources into reserves could allow for a longer mine life .
The pit is optimized to provide grades of 0.43 percent Cu for the first five years . Production will be more than 100 million pounds of copper , 27,000 oz Au , and 330,000 oz of Ag , in concentrate per year .
Full speed ahead
Production at Copper Mountain is scheduled for June of 2011 , only four years after the company went public . Construction is on track and on budget , with pre-production mining set to commence in late summer of this year . “ A number of factors were important in allowing the company to fast track the project ,” states Peter Holbek , vice president of exploration .
“ First ; management has familiarity with the project , as most of the group also operated Princeton Mining Corp . during the
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