The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Most of Hudbay's massive exploration cuts will be felt outside of northern Manitoba as the company still hopes to find its next major ore body in the Flin Flon area. Earlier this summer, Hudbay announced it will slash about $100 million in spending by the end of 2014, including $30 million from exploration projects. 'The majority of the exploration spending reductions will occur outside of Manitoba,' said Brad Lantz, senior vice-president of Hudbay's Manitoba operations. 'Hudbay remains committed to exploration in Manitoba, albeit with some limited reductions through the balance of 2013 and 2014.' Asked to put a dollar figure to the 'limited reductions' for Manitoba, Lantz said he could not be more specific since the company is still reviewing exploration plans. Asked whether the exploration cuts dampen Hudbay's hopes to find its next major mine near Flin Flon, Lantz stressed that the company remains 'committed to Manitoba.' 'And with this the major portion of the exploration budget does get spent in this region,' he said. 'All the same the area has been extensively explored, which does make target generation more challenging and finding the next major mine no easy task.' Lantz said Hudbay spends exploration dollars in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake area in two ways _ by working above-ground and by drilling underground at existing mines. For 2013, Hudbay originally planned to spend $40 million on exploration, a little more than half of it in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake area. The company did not release an exploration estimate for 2014. See 'Weak' on pg. Continued from pg. In announcing the $100 million in spending cuts in July, the result of a weak market, Hudbay said its Flin Flon and Snow Lake operations would proceed as usual. However, sustaining capital expenditures in Manitoba will be reduced by $20 million. Hudbay also plans to delay construction of the new concentrator at the Lalor mine near Snow Lake. Originally set to open in late 2014, the concentrator is now expected to launch operations in late 2016 or early 2017. As such the company will spend $9 million to expand, by mid-2014, production capacity at the existing Snow Lake concentrator to 2,700 tonnes per day. That is expected to accommodate Lalor until the end of 2016, letting Hudbay put off spending an estimated $325 million on a new concentrator. News of the spending cuts followed word that Hudbay lost $52.7 million in the second quarter of 2013. The company has now lost more than $230 million since the start of 2011 and has not had a profitable year since 2010. On track Nonetheless, Hudbay says it remains on track to meet its production and operating cost projections this year. This past April, Lantz told the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce that the company is focusing much of its exploration efforts in Flin Flon and area. 'Our emphasis this year and over the next few years is going to be looking in Flin Flon,' Lantz told delegates at a supper meeting. 'We've got lots of ore to mine in Snow Lake. We don't have lots of ore in Flin Flon, so again we're turning the focus here as hard as we can.' Lantz said Hudbay geologists have been instructed to search the area for another large anchor mine that can make up for the production lost when 777 closes. 'We don't want another one-, two-, -three-million-tonne mine,' he said. 'We'll take it, but we want ten to 20 (million tonnes). We need that anchor mine replacement.'
