First Metals begins production at Fabie Bay

First Metals (FMA-T) is finally shipping ore from its Fabie Bay open pit in Rouyn-Noranda, Que.

Ore is being crushed and processed 50 km away from the mine at the Horne mill, where a six-month, $5-million refurbishment program was just completed.

The company had hoped to start production by October but was waiting for the mill to be ready.

The mill is owned and operated by Xstrata Copper, subsidiary of Xstrata (XSRAF-O, XTA-L), and has the capacity to process up to 1,700 tonnes of ore per day.

First Metals estimates that it will truck about 1,500 tonnes of ore to the mill each day.

Combined, the Fabie Bay open pit and underground deposit have an inferred resource of 672,000 tonnes grading 2.74% copper, or 41 million lbs. copper. The company, which now employs 100 people, expects to recover about 36 million lbs.

First Metals bought the property from Globex Mining (GMX-T, GLBXF-O) for $1 million, plus a 10% net profit interest and 2% net metal royalty.

When First Metals reaches commercial production; Globex will receive shares equal to 10% of the total issued capital of First Metals.

First Metals plans to use the earnings from Fabie Bay to bring its nearby Magusi River zinc-copper deposit into production by 2009.

Total resources from both properties are expected to last 4.5 years at a production rate of 1,500 tonnes per day.

Magusi’s zinc-rich lens has an inferred resource of 1.2 million tonnes grading 0.4% copper, 7.1% zinc, 1.89 grams gold per tonne and 29 grams silver.

The copper-rich lens has an inferred resource of 839,000 tonnes grading 3.3% copper, 0.3% zinc, 0.22 gram gold per tonne and 39.1 grams silver per tonne.