Nevada Copper streamlines Pumpkin Hollow aiming for first metal in 2019

Nevada Copper Corp has announced a development plan to swiftly advance the Pumpkin Hollow underground mine project at Nevada Copper’s 100% owned Pumpkin Hollow copper property to construction phase, with the objective of making a construction decision by mid-2018 and realising first copper production in 2019.

Highlights include:

  • Completion of optimised underground project study: Release of the results of a pre-feasibility study on the underground project, with a new focus on reduced capital costs, and a mine plan oriented towards the extraction of higher-grade, higher-margin ore;
  • Chief Operating Officer appointment: The appointment of Phillip Day as Chief Operating Officer, as Nevada Copper moves forward with a construction restart of the underground project;
  • Financial support: Financial support from Pala Investments, Nevada Copper’s largest shareholder, to deliver a project financing package for the construction of the Underground Project, together with existing and new investors;
  • Development plan: Development milestones and timeline for the underground project; and
  • Open pit project optimisation: Significant opportunities identified for open pit optimisation.

The Pumpkin Hollow Property encompasses the only fully-permitted copper project of scale in the United States, comprising two potential copper mines:

  1. The high-grade underground project
  2. A large scale open pit and underground project (the ‘Integrated Project’) with reserves of 5 billion pounds of copper, 0.76 Moz of gold and 27.6 Moz of silver.

The two projects benefit from over $220 million of prior expenditures which funded a significant amount of engineering work and technical studies, and allowed for the construction of a production-sized headframe and hoist, warehouse, a 1,900 ft deep, 24-ft diameter concrete-lined production size shaft and over 600 ft of lateral development. The PFS for the Underground Project leverages the substantial existing infrastructure at the site, including power, water, road access, plus a production shaft and lateral mine development. The objective of the PFS has been to optimise the previously-defined underground portion of the Mineral Resources at Pumpkin Hollow with a focus on:

  • Reduced capital cost;
  • Higher mined ore grades;
  • Reduced operating cost profile;
  • De-risked construction plan, including brownfield assets, EPC construction approach and contract mining during ramp-up; and
  • A philosophy on focusing on “margin-over-tonnes”, while maintaining expansion and extension optionality.

Sedgman Engineering and Mining Plus have taken advantage of the existing infrastructure to improve capital cost accuracy and reduce development risk, and worked with Nevada Copper’s project team, supported by Pala Investments as technical advisor, on preparation of the PFS.

Mining will be performed using the productive mechanized transverse long-hole mining method, with cemented paste fill (CPF) in the primary and some secondary stopes, and un-cemented paste fill (UPF) or unconsolidated rock fill of remaining secondary stopes. Once at steady-state production, all waste rock is planned to remain underground to be used as backfill for secondary stopes. Until then, waste rock will be hoisted to surface.

One production/service shaft and three ventilation/emergency egress shafts are included in the mine design. Stopes will be 100 ft high by 50 ft wide for East South, 100 ft high by variable widths for E2 zones, and 75 ft high by 50 ft wide for East North zone. Mining will be carried out using longhole drilling and blasting, with ore and waste material mucked using LHDs, direct to ore passes or to remuck bays situated for optimum materials handling. Ore material will be transported via haul trucks and/or ore passes to the Coarse Ore Bins for storage before being hoisted out of the mine. Haul trucks will be used to transport ore material from the remuck bays to the COBs, or to transport waste to the backfill levels. The majority of the underground mobile mining fleet will be battery powered.