BRITISH COLUMBIA — The Highland Valley Copper operation belonging to Teck Resources of Vancouver will be forced to curtail production for the next 18 months after a stress crack in the east wall of the Valley pit was identified late in June 2008. Consequently, Teck says copper production during the last half of 2009 will be cut by 35 million lb and in 2010 by 115 million lb.
Teck says the latest problem is unrelated to two similar occurrences in the last half of 2008; they were substantially remediated in Q1 2009. The current problem will restrict access to some of the ore in the Valley pit for at least 18 months. The shortfall will be partially made up by mining lower grade ore from the Lornex and Highmont pits. Remedial actions will include at least 40 million tonnes of additional stripping and the placement of another buttress.
The mines and mill, located near Kamloops, produced 119,300 tonnes of copper and 4.2 million lb of molybdenum in 2008. Teck's revised 2009 production forecast for Highland Valley Copper is 258 million lb of copper. The preliminary estimate for 2010 is 187 million lb.
More information about Highland Valley and Teck's other copper producers may be found at www.Teck.com.
Comments