U.S. REPORT Kennecott gets OK for Wisconsin mine

The Flambeau copper deposit in Rusk Cty., Wis., has finally been granted the production go-ahead by Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources. Flambeau Mining, a unit of Kennecott, hopes to be shipping the first load of ore from the mine by the fall of 1992, following a permitting procedure that lasted more than three years.

Expected to produce about 320,000 tons of copper ore per year, Flambeau will be the first non- ferrous metal deposit to enter production in the state since the Shullsburg lead-zinc mine closed in 1979.

But the Flambeau project has not escaped Wisconsin’s strict environmental regulations.

Reclamation plans call for all waste rock, glacial overburden and soil to be returned to the open pit in their original sequence. The entire site would then be replanted with grass and trees, and a 7.5-acre wetland would be created over the western end of the reclaimed pit. Flambeau Mining would be permanently responsible for monitoring and maintaining the site.

Discovered in 1968, Flambeau was shelved in the late 1970s and reactivated in 1986. Expected to produce for six years, the deposit contains 1.9 million tons of ore grading 10.5% copper.

During operation and reclamation, about 60 people will be employed at Flambeau. Ore from the mine will be shipped to an existing mill, possibly Metall Mining’s (TSE) White Pine facility in northern Michigan, at a rate of 1,300 tons per day.