The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2022 - January 19, 2023
Minto, which supplies Sumitomo Corp. in Japan, produced roughly 26 million pounds of payable copper in 2021.
An aerial view of the Minto copper-gold mine roughly 240 kilometers (149 miles) from Yukon's capital, Whitehorse.
After being spun out from parent purchaser Pembridge Resources plc, Minto Metals Corp. kicked off the year with its strongest quarter yet with production results from its Minto copper mine in central Yukon.
Bought from Capstone Mining Corp. in early 2018, Pembridge managed to complete its first full year of operations in 2020, despite the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toward the end of that year, the company completed the formation of Minto Metals Corp., a TSX Venture Exchange-listed company that now operates the Minto Mine.
The mine itself has been in operation since 2007, with underground mining commencing in 2014. Over the past 15 years, approximately 500 million pounds of copper have been produced from this operation.
Even after all that mining, based on an early preliminary economic assessment prepared for Pembridge, Minto is expected to produce 277 million lb of copper, 129,000 ounces of gold, and 930,000 oz of silver over an eight-year mine life.
The mine outlined in the PEA is based on 11.09 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 1.46% (356 million lb) copper, 0.53 grams per metric ton (189,000 oz) gold, and 4.75 g/t (1.86 million oz) silver; pus 13.03 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.29% (370 million lb) copper), 0.49 g/t (207,000 oz) gold, and 4.55 g/t (2.09 million oz) silver.
Overall, the mine is forecast to average 38 million lb of copper, 17,600 oz of gold, and 129,000 oz of silver annually over the next five years.
"After a challenging start in 2021, the team has shown tremendous perseverance and has now put together five months in a row of strong operating results as we carried our momentum from November and December 2021 into the first quarter of 2022," said Minto Metals President and CEO Chris Stewart.
With this momentum, Minto Metals produced a record 9.1 million lb of copper during the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 70.7% compared to the 5.3 million lb produced during the first three months of 2021.
With copper output on the rise, Minto carried out a roughly 30,000-meter drill program during 2022 focused on adding to the resources at this Yukon copper operation.
Some of the highlights from this drilling include:
• 25.97 meters averaging 1.34% copper in hole 21EXP016 (Minto East 2 extension).
• 2.05 meters averaging 3.83% copper, and 15.1 meters of 0.79% copper in hole 21EXP019 (Minto North).
• 15.99 meters averaging 1.42% copper in hole 21DSME-005 (Minto East 2).
• 29.39 meters averaging 0.46% copper in hole 22EXP023 (new discovery).
• 12.16 meters averaging 2.11% copper in hole 22EXP031 (CU Keel South).
• 4.41 meters averaging 1.3% copper in hole 22EXP034 (Ridgetop).
"This phase of drilling focused on high priority, untested exploration targets adjacent to the current resource base and followed-up on successful discovery holes from the 2021 drill campaign," said Minto Metals Vice President of Exploration David Benson.
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