Its been just half a year since First Metals (FMA-T) formed so it could put the Fabie Bay and Magusi River copper-zinc deposits 45 km northwest of Rouyn-Noranda, Que. into production and now the time has nearly come.
Today the company reports that the Fabie pit is ready to load and blast. The ramp is in place, a loader is on site and the jaw crusher is being installed and will be operational by the end of April. Dewatering of the underground workings has reached the 90-metre level allowing for underground production to start on several levels.
In January, the company signed an agreement with Xstrata Copper for custom milling at the Horne Mill in Rouyn-Noranda. As part of the deal, First Metals spent $4.5 million to refurbish the mill. The company says the mill will be ready in the next few months, which is when open-pit production will begin.
The company drilled 350 holes in the open pit and has received results for 144 the average grade so far is 2.85% copper using a 1.5% cut-off grade. The rest of results are expected in the next 10 days, allowing the company to calculate official tonnage and grade.
Earlier estimates for Fabie give the mine an eight-year life at a production rate of 400 tonnes per day.
Noranda mined and milled 103,000 tonnes grading 2.64% copper from the Fabie mine in the 1970s the mine now has an inferred resource of 673,000 tonnes grading 2.74% copper.
Magusi River deposit is about 1 km west of Fabie and production is expected to start in the third quarter. Magusi has an inferred resource of 1.23 million tonnes grading 7.1% zinc plus 1.9 grams gold per tonne and 839,000 tonnes grading 3.3% copper.
First Metals bought both properties from Globex Mining Enterprises (GMX-T) last year for $1 million, plus a 10% ownership in First Metals, a 2% net metals royalty and a 10% profit interest after the recovery of $10 million in project capital.
First Metals shares rose 7 on the TSX today to 85 on a trading volume of 162,000.
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