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.
With major mines under development in Snow Lake and Peru, Hudbay hopes its next big find will come closer to home. The company is concentrating much of its exploration efforts in Flin Flon and area with the city's lone mine, 777, due to run out in 2020. 'Our emphasis this year and over the next few years is going to be looking in Flin Flon,' Brad Lantz, vice-president of Hudbay's Manitoba operations, told the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce last week. '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.' Lantz said Flin Flon-focused geophysical work this year has identified some 'very good targets' that will be tested over the next few years. 'With a little luck we'll have some positive results,' he told 35 guests gathered at the chamber's April 18 evening meeting, held at The Unwinder. Though sounding an optimistic tone at times, Lantz did not raise false hope. 'We look good today (in Flin Flon), but time moves by pretty quick and if we don't have a major discovery and we've lost all our feed, we would have issues,' he said. Though it is more than 60 kilometres outside Flin Flon, many people have asked Lantz whether the McIlvenna Bay deposit, owned by Foran Mining Corp., is the anchor mine the community needs. 'It may be,' he conceded. 'We have looked at that (deposit) before and I would say that that's a great economic deposit. The grades aren't all that great, but I think what I would tell you is that (no) stone will go unturned here (in the search for a new deposit).' With 777 due to deplete in 2020, time is of the essence for Hudbay, as Lantz said any new deposit discovered will take about seven years to bring into production. 'Mines take time to be found, mines take time to be developed,' he said during a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation. Lantz stressed both the importance and uncertainty of mineral exploration, saying that while techniques have improved with time, a company can still drill 1,000 holes without finding viable ore. He said he would like to see more junior miners exploring in the area, offering Hudbay a chance to form partnerships and share in any exploration success. While the long-term future of any mining company is speculative, the next few years look to be encouraging for Hudbay. Lantz said 2013 will mark a record year for production at 777, thanks to the 777 North expansion project. See 'Conce...' on pg. Continued from pg. He said the company will 'push 777 a little harder' for output, at least until the Reed mine outside Snow Lake enters production toward the end of this year. Following last year's closure of the Trout Lake mine near Flin Flon, Lantz said output from Reed should bring the Flin Flon concentrator back up to capacity. At the Lalor mine, closer to Snow Lake, Lantz said crews have yet to find the bottom of the 20-year deposit. As for the Constancia mine in Peru, Lantz illustrated the enormity of the project by noting it will include a 3,500-bed camp and produce 80,000 tonnes of ore a day. 'To give a little context to that, 777 mine is 135,000 tonnes a month,' he said. 'So it's doing in two days more than what we do at 777 in a month.' But Constancia has not come cheap for Hudbay, which is now spending about $3 million a day at the site. In terms of its workforce, Lantz said Hudbay has become 'a little smaller' in Flin Flon _ but that will change if exploration is successful. The company now has about 1,300 employees between Flin Flon and Snow Lake, similar to levels in 2010 but lower than those in the years leading up to 2010. Hudbay's workforce is aging, Lantz said, and getting younger remains a challenge for the company. As for workplace safety, Lantz said Hudbay has 'world-class safety numbers.'
