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.
Hudbay is moving forward at the Lalor mine while projecting higher copper output from its collective properties. The company announced last week that, based on production results to date, it expected to achieve commercial production from the first phase of Lalor as of yesterday. That means Lalor, situated near Snow Lake, is anticipated to begin adding to the company's bottom line this month. But full production is still a ways away, projected for late 2014. In terms of minerals, Hudbay has increased its known copper reserves for the third consecutive year thanks largely to its property in Peru. Company-wide copper equivalent in the 'proven and probable' category rose by 12 per cent over last year to roughly 3.6 million tonnes. See 'Explor...' on pg. 12 Exploration, evaluation largely behind increase Continued from pg. 3 Hudbay also has some 1.9 million tonnes of copper equivalent in the less reliable 'measured and indicated' category, and about 2.2 million tonnes in the 'inferred' category, a step below 'measured and indicated.' The company said successful exploration and resource evaluation accounted for nearly 90 per cent of the increase in copper equivalent reserves and resources. Over half of the company's total copper reserves are now in Peru at the Constancia and Pampacancha properties. 'We have grown our metals reserves and resources per share for the third consecutive year and, in doing so, we have been able to provide our shareholders with increasing leverage to commodity exposure on a per-share basis,' said David Garofalo, Hudbay president and CEO, in a news release. 'Much of this success was attributed to growth from Constancia and the higher grade Pampacancha deposit in Peru. As we continue our Peru exploration program and begin to explore from underground at our Lalor project, we are hopeful we will continue increasing reserves and resources going forward.' His remarks represent flashes of good news in what has been an otherwise challenging era for Hudbay. The company has been the subject of protests by members of Pukatawagan's Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, which claims Hudbay's Lalor and Reed mines are on its traditional land. And in February, Hudbay announced it lost money for the second straight year in 2012 and that the planned concentrator at Lalor had gone about $90 million over budget.
