Having carried out a first phase of work, Gibraltar Mines (TSE) has decided not to proceed with the second phase of its option on the Mount Polley copper-gold project in central British Columbia.
The news was disappointing for Imperial Metals (TSE), which now intends to continue efforts to develop Mount Polley as a stand-alone operation. Since entering the option agreement with Imperial earlier this year, Gibraltar has spent more than $500,000 studying the project. It considered building a mine-mill complex at the Mount Polley site, as well as trucking Mount Polley ore to its McLeese Lake mill for processing.
Gibraltar President William Myckatyn said Mount Polley does not meet the company’s investment criteria for development properties. “I particularly regret having to make this decision in light of Mount Polley’s proximity to the McLeese operation and the positive impact it would have had on the local community,” he added.
As for Imperial, it will continue to focus on increasing throughput to take advantage of economies of scale, based on a recent feasibility study and the work done by Gibraltar.
At last report, the project had open-pit minable reserves of 53 million tons averaging 0.38% copper and 0.016 oz. gold per ton, within a geologic resource of 254 million tons averaging 0.256% copper and 0.01 oz. gold.
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