Copper Mountain mining announces larger mineral reserve at the Copper Mountain Mine

Highlights from the updated mine plan and mineral reserve and mineral resource include:

• Increased proven and probable mineral reserve by 12% to 477 million tonnes for contained metal of 2.47 billion lb of copper and 1.55 million oz of gold (at average grades of 0.23% Cu and 0.10 g/t Au).
• Life of mine strip ratio reduced to 1.58 from 1.82.
• Mine life increased by 4.5 years to 31 years at current planned production levels.

Gil Clausen, Copper Mountain's President and CEO stated: "We continue to grow the size and quality of the Copper Mountain Mine Mineral Reserves. Over the last year we have integrated the New Ingerbelle pit and now we have increased and integrated the CMM North pit as well as optimised the CMM Main pit. The North pit brings low cost production given it is mineralised from surface and adjacent to the Copper Mountain Mine's mid-grade and low-grade stockpiles and the primary crusher. Notably, the North pit requires zero initial capital to develop and has a low strip ratio of 0.85 waste tonnes to ore tonnes, which, when combined with the new design optimisations of the established pits, decreases total life of mine strip ratio for the entire operation to 1.58 from 1.82."

Clausen added: "We will continue to drill the resources at the Copper Mountain Mine as significant potential exists to further expand all the deposits at a low conversion and discovery cost. Given the positive impact that the CMM North pit could have on near term production cost, we have adjusted our current mine plan to accommodate some production commencing from CMM North starting later in 2020. The bulk of production in 2020 and over the next several years is still expected to come from higher grade zones in the CMM Main pit. With the planned completion of our mill expansion project, which is currently underway, the new mine plan will allow for a more consistent, higher production rate at lower cost in the near, medium and longer term."

Mineral reserve and mineral resource

As a result of the 2019 exploration and development drilling at the Copper Mountain Mine, the company has increased the mine's mineral reserve and mineral resource across all categories when compared to the last published February 2019 mineral reserve and mineral resource, including depletion from production to the end of July 2019. A summary of the Copper Mountain Mine Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource, which includes the CMM Main pit, CMM North pit and the New Ingerbelle pit is provided below.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/30102019/copper-mountain-mining-announces-larger-mineral-reserve-at-the-copper-mountain-mine/