In the earning conference call for Q4 2020, Don Strickland, Copper Mountain Mining Corp COO, and Gil Clausen, President and CEO, outlined in some more details on its trolley assist vision, plans and progress to date.
Strickland comments: “We are targeting to start commissioning our Trolley Assist trial in late 2021. Our objective is to reduce our GHGs by replacing diesel with electricity. For context, we will reduce haul truck fuel burn from about 400 litres per hour to about 30 litres per hour while operating on Trolley Assist. We expect to reduce our GHG emissions in excess of 100,000 t of CO2 over the life of mine with the section of Trolley Assist. We also expect to significantly increase uphill haulage speeds with Trolley Assist, thereby reducing our overall truck hours. This trial will allow us to define the improvements in productivity and unit operating costs.”
He also stated: “During the quarter, we started construction to modify our main ramp to support the trolley assist installation, which is approximately 1 kilometre long and will run from the bottom of the main pit to the primary crusher. The trolley assist ramp section will support ore haul from the main pit and for New Ingerbelle over the life of mine.”
The low risk, low capital New Ingerbelle project deposit is located approximately one kilometre from the company’s flagship operation, the Copper Mountain Mine. The company has completed a base case Preliminary Economic Assessment, where it assumes that the material at New Ingerbelle will supplant the ore at its Copper Mountain mine and use its current mine equipment fleet and mill.
Gil Clausen added that the company has been the recipient of really significant support from the province of British Columbia and also BC Hydro, through power smart initiatives. “We’re just straightening out our mine-haul road. There’s no significant cost associated with that. As a matter of fact, we expect cost savings as we straighten out the main ramp to be able to accommodate a straight haul section on and put the power lines in on the main-haul road ramp up to crusher. The fuel burn is significant; the fuel burn reduction is significant. So on a straight energy basis; we expect to save significantly and in terms of those operating costs with respect to that segment of the haul.”
He adds on a question about trolley costs: “The capital, we’ve been investing in new trucks as we replace our truck fleet with these are new Komatsu trucks that are equipped with the ability to put the pantographs on and utilise the electricity from the grid through the installation that we’re playing this year. So there’s really no additional capital costs associated with the retrofitting of trucks as we replace our truck lease, which we’re in the process of doing now, as well as some of our older fleet ages out, we were replacing the trolley ready trucks, and there’s really no significant increase in cost associated with that. So the real cost is in the construction of the lines itself on the ramp. And as Don pointed out, that’s been well offset by support from the provincial government, who’s also very interested in the outcome of this trial, and the ability to be able to reduce GHG. So I think in the long run, we’re going to see a very strong economic benefit from this initiative, and not just the economic benefit, but of course, the environmental benefits, which we believe will be significant.”
Finally on other projects, on mineral processing, late in 2020, on the strength of stronger metal prices and an increasing cash balance, the company restarted the second and final stage of its Ball Mill 3 Expansion Project. The Ball Mill 3 Expansion Project is designed to increase mill throughput to 45,000 t per day from 40,000 t per day and improve copper recovery as a result of achieving a finer grind of ore. Demolition has been completed in the area where the third ball mill is to be installed and excavation work for the Ball Mill 3 foundations has commenced. The Ball Mill 3 Expansion Project is on track to complete commissioning by the end of Q3 2021.
On November 30, 2020, the company announced a new life of mine plan for the Copper Mountain Mine, which included a proposed further mill expansion to 65,000 t per day which builds upon the 45,000 t per day mill expansion currently underway.