Morice Land and Resource Management Plan
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- Development of Open Pit Mines
- Opportunity Analysis
Identified OpportunitiesThe Economic Development Working Group, through the brainstorming sessions, identified the following list of opportunities for the Mineral, Oil, Gas and Energy Sector. Table 16 is the listing of opportunities and their relative rankings within that sector. Table 16. Identified Mineral, Oil and Gas, and Energy Opportunities and rankings
Using the ranking criteria to identify top priority opportunities, five were selected for further analysis. Those opportunities were; Exploration and development of medium to large scale open pit mines, exploration and development of small to medium underground mining operations, rework tailings from existing mines, development of a copper smelter and opportunities associated with oil and gas exploration and extraction. After further review of the priorities it was felt that the re-working of mine tailings did not require any consideration by the LRMP table. While it was recognized that technological advancements have made such an opportunity worthwhile to pursue there were no recommendations or management direction required to start this opportunity. This opportunity therefore was not analyzed. The following sections explore the criteria and conditions for developing these opportunities. For further information on these and other economic development opportunities interested individuals are asked to review the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, Building Blocks. Information on these Building Blocks can be obtained online at http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/rmd/ecdev/analysis/building_blocks.htm . Development of Open Pit MinesOverviewOpen pit mining is a term applied to a surface mining method in which overburden is removed to expose ore. Material is removed from the deposit within economic limits. The concept of open pit mining is simple, but planning for development is complex and costly. It may be necessary to blend different ore types to maintain character and grade of the mill feed. It may also be necessary to ship different ore types separately - oxide must be treated separately from sulphide ores, and low-grade ores may go to leach dumps, or gold-bearing oxide capping to special leach pads. Grade and tonnage of material available will determine pit limits and how much waste rock can be stripped. The ultimate limit to the pit is determined by the economics of removing overburden (i.e., waste rock on top of viable ore). Deposits generally decline in grade outward, so cut-off and pit limits may vary greatly with economic parameters. Slight variations in cost/value may have a great influence upon ore reserves.
Notable, local past producers include: the Granisle Mine, Bell Copper Mine, and Equity Silver Mine. The Granisle open pit mine was a copper-gold-silver producer and operated from 1966 to 1982. The mine still has remaining economic mineral reserves that were not extracted when the mine closed. The Bell Copper open pit mine operated from 1972 until June of 1992 when it too closed in response to low copper prices. Also, like Granisle, there remain potential reserves that could be mined if copper prices were to strengthen. Finally, Equity Silver mine operated as an open pit silver-gold-copper producer from 1981 to 1992 and then converted to an underground mine until its closure in January 1994. Opportunity AnalysisAlmost two-thirds of the Morice Plan area (970,000 hectares) is considered to be of extreme or high metallic mineral potential. Of this, 70,588 hectares covered by mining claims represent five percent of the total Morice Plan area. Perhaps the most promising mine development in the Morice Plan area is the Morrison deposit, a copper-gold porphyry deposit within 20 kilometres of two former open pit producers – Bell Copper Mine and Granisle Mine. Noranda and Pacific Booker Minerals Inc own the Morrison deposit equally. Booker also has a 100 percent interest in the Hearne Hill porphyry deposit which is adjacent to Morrison and has a high-grade core and combined with Morrison could ensure a profitable mine life. Another strong possibility for the development of an open pit mine is the existing Bell Mine site. This mine site still has large proven reserves; however, there is significant overburden that would need to be removed. If a viable model can be determine for this site than it is likely the remaining sizable deposit would be mined. The Berg property is also a large copper and molybdenum deposit that holds development potential and would be mined as an open pit operation. Finally the Poplar mineral property is another site with known sizable tonnage. This would also be a copper and molybdenum open pit operation, if it were ever determined to be viable. Download 1.06 Mb. Share with your friends:
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n Northwestern British Columbia there have been numerous sizable producing open pit mines as the region is very rich in metallic mineral lands. In the Morice Plan area there is currently one active open pit mine – the Huckleberry Mine. The Huckleberry Mine began operation in late 1997 and is estimated to have four to five years of active mine life left. Huckleberry mine directly employees 215 workers and has a payroll of approximately $18 million annually.