Nevada Copper restarts Pumpkin Hollow Mine
Nevada Copper Corp. [NCU-TSX] said Monday it has restarted the milling operations at its 100%-owned Pumpkin Hollow underground mine near Yerington, 100 miles south of Reno, Nevada. The move follows a temporary suspension of copper production due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plant restart and ramp up benefits from the processing plant’s initial consistent performance in the first quarter of 2020, Nevada Copper said in a press release. The company said there are approximately 160,000 tons of stockpiled material at surface available for immediate processing. The stockpiled ore will be supplemented with additional development ore and subsequent stope ore hoisted via the East North Ventilation Shaft (ENVS).
Production at Pumpkin Hollow’s processing plant began on December 16, 2019, utilizing development ore stockpiled during the underground mine construction.
On Monday August 24, Nevada Copper shares were unchanged at 13 cents on volume of 880,201. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 13 cents and 38 cents.
Pumpkin Hollow is a high-grade skarn/iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposit located within a porphyry copper district within the Walker Lane mineral belt of western Nevada.
The project hosts an underground mine as well as a permitted open pit development project located 4 km west of the underground mine.
Nevada Copper is expected to produce 13 million pounds of copper in the second half of 2020, ramping up to 50 million pounds in 2021 and 64 million pounds in 2022. That compares to an average of 50 million pounds over a 14-year mine life. During the first five years of production, the all-in-sustaining cost is expected to be US$1.86 a pound. The life of mine all-in-sustaining cost is expected to be US$1.96 a pound.
On Monday, copper was trading on the spot market at US$2.9/lb.