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.
Jonathon Naylor Editor HudBay Minerals is touting progress on two Snow Lake area properties Ð one that will host a mine and another that very well might. In unveiling the company's latest financial results last week, President and CEO David Garofalo updated observers on the Lalor and Reed projects. He said that during the second quarter, HudBay "made good progress on our strategic objectives, with the announcement of an optimized project plan and commitment to a new concentrator at Lalor" and "progress towards a development decision at Reed." HudBay said the massive Lalor project remains on schedule, with significant progress made on the planned 3,200-metre access ramp. It has advanced close to 2,500 metres since the start of construction in late 2009. The ramp is meant to extend to the base of the ventilation shaft now under construction. It is expected to reach the 810-metre level and continue with multiple headings by the fourth quarter of this year. Plans HudBay plans to reach the ventilation site in the first quarter of 2012, start diamond drilling from underground, access the ore zones and proceed to the main production shaft location. The ventilation shaft has been presunk to the 30-metre level and construction is complete on the temporary headframe and hoist arrangement to support the sinking. Shaft crews have commissioned the sinking equipment and, as of Aug. 8, the shaft had been sunk to a depth of about 63 metres. The ventilation shaft is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2012, after which first ore production is expected up the ventilation shaft. HudBay has started construction on the permanent main fresh-air fan and heater system for the ramp. This work is scheduled to be completed this summer in preparation for the next heating season. Fully commissioned Construction is proceeding on the main site. Lalor's construction camp is fully commissioned, meaning HudBay can now accommodate 196 construction workers. The polishing pond (settling pond) is finished and being used for the water from the ventilation shaft sink. The water treatment plant is moving ahead with piping, and the civil foundation work has wrapped up. The ventilation plenum, main shaft collar and production hoist foundations have been excavated. Framing and concrete pours for the shaft hoist foundations are proceeding. Steeling framing is arriving on site for the hoist house building and is currently being erected, with headframe steel to follow. See 'Produc...' on pg. 7 Continued from pg. 3 Procurement and tendering is ongoing on the long-lead items. The main production hoist and man hoist have started to arrive on site for installation in the third quarter of this year. On the exploration front, HudBay continues metallurgical testing of Lalor ores, focusing on gold recovery optimization and environmental testing of the potential water effluent from the concentrator. Three drills are operating near the Lalor site, with two concentrating on geophysical anomalies peripheral to the deposit. An underground drill from the Lalor ramp is testing geophysical and geological targets. Last month, HudBay committed to an incremental $144-million investment to construct a new concentrator and paste backfill plant at the Lalor site. Lalor's overall budget is now $704 million, which includes $441 million for the construction of the mine and associated infrastructure, and $263 million for a concentrator and backfill plant adjacent to the main production shaft. HudBay had spent about $122 million on the Lalor project as of June 30. Nearby, work is moving ahead in relation to the Reed copper project, widely viewed as a future mine. Reed is a joint venture between HudBay (70 per cent interest) and junior miner VMS Ventures (30 per cent). A pre-feasibility study and the technical activities required for permitting are underway. An application for an advance exploration permit is expected to be submitted by the end of Sep-tember. Two drills are operating at Reed and targeting regional geophysical anomalies within three kilometres of the project with an aim to meet work commitment requirements on properties under option from VMS. HudBay refers to Reed as "a high-grade near-surface copper deposit that could be accessed via a ramp with the ore trucked to the Flin Flon concentrator." Ample attention Elsewhere, HudBay is also paying ample attention to its Constancia copper project in Peru. Exploration permits required to continue testing the mineralized extent of the Pampacancha deposit, part of Constancia, were received during the second quarter. And this past spring, HudBay pledged a 2011 pre-construction program for Constancia with a total budget of US$116 million. It contemplates early equipment procurement for long lead items, a resource model update, metallurgy review, pit optimization study, geotechnical and condemnation drilling, and a US$9 million exploration program. Subject to board approval, HudBay expects construction at Constancia to begin early next year, leading toward the first full year of production by 2016. In Michigan, preparations for a permit application and an economic assessment at the Back Forty project are ongoing. HudBay plans to complete a feasibility study and submit a permit application for Back Forty by the second quarter of 2012. Drilling on several near deposit geophysical anomalies is scheduled to begin by the end of September. Further north, exploration at HudBay's Tom and Jason properties in the Yukon was set to begin in mid-August. Two drills are to test possible extensions to known mineralization, enabling the collection of metallurgical samples required for the preparation of economic assessments. The exploration on these properties is intended to assist with upgrading and expanding the current mineral resource and providing the necessary information for a preliminary economic assessment early next year.
