Copper Mountain eyes reserve update in B.C.
Copper Mountain Mining Corp. [CMMC-TSX] on Thursday released continued positive drill results from the New Ingerbelle copper-gold satellite deposit in southern British Columbia.
Copper Mountain shares advanced on the news, rising 3.0% or 12 cents to $4.07 and currently trades in a 52-week range of $5.07 and $1.98.
The satellite deposit is located one kilometre west of the company’s flagship Copper Mountain Mine which is located 20 kilometres south of Princeton and 300 kilometres east of Vancouver.
New Ingerbelle is a past producing open pit that was developed in the late 1960s with mining occurring between 1972 and 1980. Copper Mountain began drilling at New Ingerbelle in 2017.
The company is drilling New Ingerbelle with two drills on site. The current program consists of 27,000 metres of drilling and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
New Interbelle has reserves of 191 million tonnes, grading 0.24% copper, 0.15 g/t gold, and 0.48 g/t silver, containing 1.0 billion pounds of copper, 916,000 ounces of gold and 2.9 million ounces of silver.
Copper Mountain has previously said its goal is to define sufficient reserves to add another 10 years of production to Copper Mountain’s life of mine plan.
“Drilling at New Ingerbelle continues to expand the size of the deposit,” said Copper Mountain President and CEO Gil Clausen. “The ongoing drill program has extended the New Ingerbelle mineralization at depth as well as along strike and the deposit remains open in a number of directions,” he said.
“Based on the positive drilling results from the current program, we expect to substantially increase the mineral reserve and mineral resource estimate at our Copper Mountain Mine.”
The company said it plans to announce an updated mineral reserve and mineral resource estimate, which will include all drill results from this ongoing drill program along with a new life of mine plan based on a mine/mill expansion by mid-2022.
“We believe this new plan will demonstrate the scale potential of the Copper Mountain Mine.”
The Copper Mountain Mine currently produces approximately 100 million pounds of copper equivalent per year, with average annual production expected to increase to approximately 140 million pounds of copper equivalent at a cash cost of US$1.19 per- pound over the first 10 years of its 21-year mine life.
Copper Mountain’s other key asset is the Eva Copper Project in the Mount Isa region of Queensland. The company said an updated capital estimate and a formal development decision on the company’s proposed Eva copper project in Queensland, Australia are anticipated by the end of 2021. Development is expected to begin in early 2022.