Workers have been appointed to monitor key aspects of Hudbay’s planned gradual shutdown of Flin Flon operations.
In a memo sent to Hudbay’s Manitoba employees on March 12, Hudbay Manitoba Business Unit vice-president Rob Assabgui said project leaders have been assigned for a refresh of the Flin Flon zinc plant, a closure plan for 777 mine, a care and maintenance plan for the Flin Flon metallurgical complex, a workforce transition plan and communication and change management.
“Our commitment is to work collaboratively and keep everyone informed as information becomes available,” said Assabgui in the memo.
Assabgui also said the company has been in touch with municipal officials across northern Manitoba and representatives from both Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments.
Assabgui also confirmed that 777 mine is set to be “depleted” by the end of 2021, but said an updated mineral reserve for the site will be published in late March.
“The base assumption is that all operations in the Flin Flon area will cease once 777 mine closes,” said Assabgui.
The Flin Flon zinc plant is not currently anticipated to stay open after 777 mine is shut down, but Assabgui left open the possibility of keeping the plant open until May 2022 if the mine life of 777 is extended following the mineral reserve release.
The company’s drilling program near Centoba Park “did not hit any significant mineralization,” said Assabgui, who confirmed that drilling is now taking place around Moose Lake, with the company also slated to drill within Flin Flon this summer.
Assabgui also gave updates on two deposits near Snow Lake. Drilling will continue at the Pen deposit, which was first announced last summer, but the area has “insufficient resources to develop it into a mine” at the current time. Drilling around the site may lead to expansion.
After the Flin Flon closure, Hudbay plans to employ around 770 people within Manitoba and take over drilling and development work at Lalor mine currently entrusted to contractors.
The number of people affected by the closure will be determined in the coming months. Assabgui estimated around 250 Flin Flon workers will be eligible to retire before the anticipated Flin Flon shutdown date.
Hudbay director of corporate communications Scott Brubacher confirmed that there are not currently plans for Hudbay to provide travel assistance for workers
coming from Flin Flon to Snow Lake for work, and said no updated information was available for when Hudbay-owned mine operations in Flin Flon may begin to wind down.
“The details are still being worked out. We are taking our time to establish the facts of the matter clearly so we can share that with our employees,” he said.
Brubacher also said the company is open to the idea of holding a public meeting with community members surrounding a Flin Flon mine closure, but no plans have yet been made.
“There are no plans at this time, but if an approach like that were necessary or helpful we would act on that basis. We have a team tasked with working with the communities and they are doing so,” he said, adding that mine operation is continuing as previously planned.
“Remember, at the present time, it’s business as usual. Understandably, people are looking to the future with concern. What we can do is honour our commitment to keep people informed when we have solid information to inform them with. In many instances, that is taking time to formulate, so we have to ask for patience while we formulate it, but we firmly believe facts are better than speculation in circumstances like these.”
Hudbay’s recently announced findings near Chisel North, located not far from Snow Lake, may provide a potential source of feed material for the Flin Flon mine facilities, but work on the site is in preliminary stages.
“We’re still learning a lot about that deposit. We can’t speculate at this point. We know where the mineralization is. The drilling we have planned will tell us more about its extent,” said Brubacher.
