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.
Snow Lake Camp and Mill Several columns back, I reported on Town Council's approval of HudBay Minerals' camp, which is currently being set up on their property northeast of town. Prior to doing that story, I contacted the company's senior vice president and chief operating officer, Tom Goodman, for his comments on both the camp and the prospect of a new mill at the Lalor site. Goodman was busy with the upcoming mining convention, but replied to the questions upon his return from that event. In giving an overview of the camp, Goodman explained that it will be a temporary construction camp for 200 construction workers. "The majority of people who will reside here are the shaft sinkers for the vent raise and main production shaft," he said. Mobile units The camp consists of five mobile units for sleeping, a kitchen and a sewage treatment plant. Goodman noted that the first two units started to arrive on Nov. 18 and by mid-December, HudBay would have those two units, a kitchen, and the sewage plant for 76 people. "The other three sleeping units will arrive in January," he added. Goodman made it quite clear that this camp is meant as a construction camp only. "The camp is meant for construction workers and not for employees," he said. "When Lalor goes into full production in 2015, our intent is to be in a position to shut down the camp. We want to have our employees residing in the town of Snow Lake, in normal housing. Our preference is very much not to operate a camp long-term." Originally, it wasn't HudBay's intention that this camp be situated within the confines of Snow Lake. Goodman advised that early project plans called for a camp at the mine site. However, they have deviated from that plan and now propose to have only the temporary camp in town. "This will remain our plan, unless something happens to change our thinking," explained Goodman. Concentrator In respect to the Stall Lake Concentrator, there has been some talk of late whether it would make better business sense to build a new mill at the Lalor site, as opposed to refurbishing the old one, which was constructed in the late 1970s. One obvious saving would be in handling Lalor's rich ore. Rather than trucking ore from Lalor to Stall, it could be skipped to surface, conveyed to a mill at the site, and the concentrate sent directly to Flin Flon from there. Nevertheless, Good-man says it is too soon to be precise in answering any questions on building a new mill. "We are in the process of doing test work, which will ultimately guide us in what and where our new/refurbished mill will become," said Goodman. He did confirm the tailings from either a refurbished or a new mill would be deposited at Anderson Lake. "There will need to be an expansion of capacity of Anderson Lake over the life of the project," he said. My Take on Snow Lake runs Fridays.
