Mt. Polley is held 33.64% by Imperial Metals and 38.41% by Corona Corp. (TSE). Other Imperial Metals group entities control the remaining 27.95% interest.
The project has indicated reserves estimated at 53 million tons grading 0.44% copper and 0.017 oz gold. Imperial said these reserves are sufficient to sustain a mine life of 10 years at a rate of 15,000 tons per day. The over-all stripping ratio of the deposit is estimated at 1.9:1 waste to ore.
Earlier this year Imperial projected that capital costs for an open pit mining operation (to produce an average of 70,000 oz gold and 32 million lb of copper annually) would be in the order of $135 million.
The company recently submitted a project prospectus to the British Columbia mine development steering committee as the first step in the mine development review process.
Imperial’s current program will include 20,000 ft of close spaced drilling to detail portions of Central and West zone reserves while a further 10,000 ft of step-out drilling will test for additional tonnage west of the Central zone.
After the drilling is completed, the company plans to carry out bulk sample metallurgical test work. Environmental and other studies have been ongoing since April of this year and will continue through to mill start-up.
Geotechnical studies scheduled for completion in October include preliminary design of the open pit slopes, waste dumps and tailings storage facilities.
The property is accessed by a paved road to within 10 km and by a good logging road for the remaining distance, however it is not serviced by power.
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