Adanac up on permit news

Once a halt on trading was over Adanac Molybdenum‘s (AUA-T) shares were free to move up the market.

And move up they did — 13% or 18 to $1.56 on 5.2 million shares on news that it had secured its environmental assessment certificate for its Ruby Creek molybdenum mine in northeastern B.C.

Ed Lee, Adanacs executive vice-president, wasnt surprised by the markets 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 BC in the last 10 years.

With the environmental assessment in hand, the company now just needs to secure its special use permit (SUP), before it can, in the words of Lee, put iron to dirt.

The SUP will allow the company to begin building a road up to specifications, something Lee says the company is ready to do. He says the permit could come as soon as 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 roughly 125 km southeast of Whitehorse.

The project has an open pit reserves of 143.7 million tonnes grading 0.059% Molybdenum at a 0.040% Mo cut-off 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 done in cooperation with the community of Atlin, which has a population of roughly 400 people and the Taku River Tlingit First Nations.

Lee says consultations with aboriginals, the community and government were harmonious, with the First Nations and the community eager for the economic benefits that should come with the 500 jobs slated for construction of the mine and 250 jobs anticipated for the operation of the mine.

The project is fairly benign, he says. Its not often you get a project going forward that is social and environmentally clean.

Adanac also has three molybdenum and copper projects in Nevada which, Lee says, the company will focus on more intently once it gets Ruby Creek in to production.

Ruby Creek is the flagship, he says. But once you have the recipe to bake the cake its easy to bake the cake again.