The Robinson Mine near Ely is the state s only primary copper-producing mine. Photo courtesy Quadra Mining Company. by Rob Sabo The Robinson mine near Ely may be the state s only primary copper-producing mine, but with prices for copper north of $3 a pound, other large-scale copper mines may come online in the future. Prices last month were running about $3.40 a pound and are more than double the $1.50 a pound paid by copper buyers in early 2009. Joe Kircher, chief operating officer for Nevada Copper, says the company s Pumpkin Hollow project eight miles southeast of Yerington is in the feasibility stage and drilling programs to establish measured and indicated reserves should be completed by the end of the year. The Pumpkin Hollow project has more than 550 exploration holes, and measured, indicated and inferred reserves at the project show a massive deposit of 9.3 billion 12 Mining April 2010
pounds of copper, Kircher says. Five rigs currently are drilling exploration holes at the site. One objective of the drilling program is to define the deposit well enough to move 3.7 billion pounds of inferred resources to the measured and indicated resources categories (demonstrating a higher degree of confidence about what s actually in the ground). Additionally, drilling programs have identified 1.45 million ounces of gold, 55 million ounces of silver and 130 million tons of iron ore that potentially could be mined at the Pumpkin Hollow site. Once its feasibility study is completed, Nevada Copper will assess plans to bring a mine into operation. The whole purpose (of a feasibility study) is to define what the optimum project dimensions are going forward, Kircher says. If copper prices are at $1, that has a major economic impact on your decisions going forward as compared to pricing at $2 or $3. Nevada Copper controls a land package comprising 22 square miles in Lyon County. The company acquired the Pumpkin Hollow property in 2005 and began serious exploration work in 2006. Copper reserves at the site were first identified in 1960 through exploration work by U.S. Steel. Six other mining companies have conducted work at the site in its 50-year history, and large tracts of land in the Exploration at Pumpkin Hollow in Yerington may lead to another primary copper mine. Photo courtesy Nevada Copper Your Rock Solid Choice for Contract Mining Contract mining to reduce client s fleet and personnel investment Award-winning safety record Develop surface mines Topsoil and overburden removal Cost effective reclamation Leachate pad construction Hazardous and non-hazardous waste removal Equipment fitted with GPS for use with 3D modeling Nevada Mining Association member www.sukut.com (888) SUKUT-01 (888) 785-8801 Northern Nevada business weekly 13
claim block remain unexplored land. The company has hit all its milestones to date, and we are very pleased with the progress of the project, Kircher says. It has a very high probability of becoming a mine. The project would follow in the tracks of the Robinson mine. Mining at the site about seven miles west of Ely began in the late 1800s. The Robinson mine was established in 1994 but was shuttered in 1999. Quadra Mining of Vancouver purchased the property in 2004 and resumed mining operations. The mine is expected to continue operations through 2016 or 2017 and has averaged 121 to 126 million pounds of copper per year since 2005. In 2008 Robinson produced a record 159.7 million pounds of copper and 137,628 ounces of gold. Mining operations are focused on the Veteran and Ruth pits. Quadra expects the Robinson mine to If copper prices are at $1, that has a major economic impact on your decisions going forward as compared to pricing at $2 or $3. Joe Kircher, Nevada Copper USD / lb 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 Mar. 05 Sep. 08 Mar. 06 Se.p 06 Feb. 07 Aug. 07 Feb. 08 5 Year Copper Spot (Source: www.kitco.com) July 08 Jan. 09 July 09 Dec. 09 General Moly o and Nevada Mining ng Association on members are essential elements e t of Nevada s economic o base e and serve as valuable resources in our Nevada communities. Eureka Moly, LLC is 80% owned by General Moly and 20% owned by POSCO one of the world s top steel producers. Eureka Moly is developing and permitting the Mt. Hope Mine in Eureka County, Nevada. The Mt. Hope deposit is one of the largest primary molybdenum resources in the world. Molybdenum is utilized to harden and reinforce steel, collect and distribute renewable energy, augment the corrosive resistance of stainless steel as well as many other vital uses. A projected mine life of 44 years, careers with excellent bene ts, additional tax revenue, community development and public-private partnerships the Mt. Hope Mine will strengthen our State and its communities. Learn more about General Moly and molybdenum at our Web site: www.generalmoly.com e-mail: careers@generalmoly.com phone: 775.748.6000 General Moly is publicly traded on the NYSE AMEX and the Toronto Stock Exchange Ticker symbol: GMO 14 Mining April 2010
The more (mines) that come online, the more likely it is that the price would go down just because of supply and demand. Joe Landon, Robinson copper mine Tel: (775) 284-5500 Fax: (775) 284-5504 produce 135 million pounds of copper in 2010 and 80,000 ounces of gold. Some molybdenum also is produced at the mine. Fluctuations in the spot price for copper in the early part of 2009 slightly eroded profits at the mine, but the operation was still profitable because mining operations were budgeted at lower prices, General Manager Joe Landon says. Robinson mine had cut back some of its temporary help, but currently the property employs more than 500 miners. It was by no means big dollars being made at that time, but we did make some profit and were able to stay in operation, Landon says. Landon says additional large-scale copper-producing mines in the state could potentially impact copper prices depending on how much copper the new mines produced annually. Other copper projects throughout the United States could come back online due to the high price of copper, he adds. The more that come online, the more likely it is that the price would go down just because of supply and demand, Landon says. Copper prices are expected to hold up throughout the year, however, as global economies began staging a recovery. Tom Patton, president and chief executive officer of Quaterra Resources of Vancouver, which is advancing its MacArthur project near Yerington and also has assumed control of the old Anaconda Mining Company copper pit in Yerington, says that even with a wealth of proven resources it takes a great deal of time to advance a project. Don t expect any new mines to come online for a few years, he cautions. Big new projects take a long time to get permitted and built even if you found the best mine in the world it could take 10 years to get it into production. But when you have resources in a mining-friendly area (like Nevada), they are targets to be developed. Patton also notes that because new mining projects are so 16 Mining April 2010
If copper prices stay strong, Quaterra Resources may one day resume mining operations at the water-filled Yerington mine. Quaterra was awarded the property out of bankruptcy court. Photo courtesy Quaterra Resources capital intensive, it takes more than just identifying huge reserves of copper or gold in the ground to be successful. The challenge, he says, is for the mine developer develop a project that s sufficiently attractive to the investors who put up the capital. And that is easier to do, he says, when mining executives are advancing historical projects such those in the Yerington area. The McArthur property, for instance, has seen mining off and on since the 1940s, and seven operators have worked the site. Quaterra now is drilling exploratory holes to determine how much copper is left. Quaterra was awarded the water-filled Yerington (Anaconda) mine out of bankruptcy but has not yet accepted the facility. Resuming mining operations at the brownfields site may one day become viable, Patton says. Anaconda left because copper prices were low, not because they ran out of copper, he says. Right now our principal focus is on putting a whole picture together of what Anaconda walked away from and the drilling they did. We are doing more drilling to get an idea of size and grade of potential resources. When get all that together you put together some assumptions and see if it makes sense. But you have an area that needs to be cleaned up, and if you can do that in context of new mine it would be a win for everyone. Northern Nevada business weekly 17