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 Thousands of kilometres away from its traditional base in northern Manitoba, Hudbay is at gearing up for copper production in Peru. The company says pre-construction activity continues at its Constancia project, including ongoing engineering and procurement, hydrogeological drilling and camp construction. Hudbay has already placed orders for grinding mills and expected to order necessary mobile equipment before the end of this month. Other ongoing activities include monitoring of applications for key permits governing beneficiation, mining and water. It's anticipated these permits will be awarded sometime between early April and late June, as Constancia received its primary environmental permit well over a year ago. Optimization Hudbay also said optimization and front-end engineering and design are well-advanced. But the company is considering changes to the scope of the project. Among them: incorporating into the mine plan high-grade ore from the Pampacancha deposit located 2.5 kilometres from the proposed Constancia open pit mine. Other alterations being contemplated include adding tailings capacity to accommodate a 'significant increase' in the in-pit reserve and maximizing mill throughput. While capital and operating cost estimates for Constancia have not been finalized, these changes, along with local currency appreciation and general cost escalation, are expected to mean higher capital costs than the US$920-million estimate released last year. At this point, Hudbay is incorporating scope changes and a new resource model on the main pit into a new project economic model and mine plan. The company said the project remains on schedule, with first production anticipated in 2015 and full production the following year. Meanwhile, Hudbay announced new exploration results from Pampacancha, saying drilling has expanded the deposit to the north and west. And one hole, with 1.07 per cent copper and 0.44 grams of gold per tonne over 38.9 metres, showed what Hudbay called 'significantly higher grades' than previous drilling in the middle of the deposit. These results are being incorporated into an initial resource estimate for Pampacancha. Following a focus on hydrogeological drilling, exploration is scheduled to restart in the second quarter with the aim of growing Pampacancha and exploring targets in another area prospect. Hudbay expects to provide a full project update on Constancia by the end of this month.
