Adanac Looks to Lead New Moly Producers

Once a halt on trading was lifted, Adanac Molybdenum (AUA-T, AUAYF-O) shares were free to move up the market on news that the company had secured the environmental assessment certificate for its Ruby Creek molybdenum mine, in northeastern B.C.

And move up they did — Adanac shares climbed 13% or 18 on the announcement to $1.56 apiece on trading volume of 5.2 million.

Ed Lee, Adanac’s executive vice-president, wasn’t surprised by the market’s warm reception.

“This is a huge win,” Lee says. “I hope the general public and the industry understand that something like this is a huge win for the mining industry in that it will be the first big open-pit mining operation in B.C. in the last ten years.”

With the environmental assessment in hand, the company now needs only to secure its special use permit before it can, in Lee’s words, “put iron to dirt.”

The permit will allow the company to begin building a road. He says the permit could come within weeks.

Ruby Creek is a low-grade bulk type of molybdenum deposit, located at the headwaters of Ruby Creek in the floor of an alpine cirque. The project sits 125 km southeast of Whitehorse, Yukon.

The project has open-pit reserves of 143.7 million tonnes grading 0.059% molybdenum at a 0.04% moly cutoff grade.

Adanac is striving to make Ruby Creek the first new, large-scale molybdenum mine in 25 years, and the company boasts that it has an 18-month head start on its rivals.

The environmental assessment was completed in co-operation with the community of Atlin, which has a population of roughly 400 people, and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation.

Lee says consultations with aboriginals, the community and government were harmonious, with the local communities eager for the economic benefits that should come with the 500 jobs created during construction and the 250 during operations.

“The project is fairly benign,” he says. “It’s not often you get a project going forward that is socially and environmentally clean.”

Adanac also has three molybdenum and copper projects in Nevada, which will become more of a focus once the company gets Ruby Creek into production.

“Ruby Creek is the flagship,” he says. “But once you have the recipe to bake the cake, it’s easy to bake the cake again.”