Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Copper mining returning to Western UP

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

White Pine - Construction on a copper mine in eastern Gogebic County that could lead to over 300 direct jobs could begin as early as 2018, Highland Copper president and CEO Denise Miville-Deschenes said Tuesday, with mining beginning in late 2020 and early 2021.

Miville-Deschenes provided the update on Highland's Copperwood Project, located in northern Ironwood and Wakefield townships, at a press conference Tuesday in White Pine. The Copperwood Project is the company's primary focus, he said, with White Pine North still in the early planning stages.

"Copperwood is the fastest (project) to put into production, it requires less capital," Miville-Deschenes said. "The minute we get some cash flow, we want to use that to develop White Pine."

While the initial plan calls for a mine life of 14 to 15 years to start, expanding the project could double the size of the resource.

"If that's the case, it would bring us from a (15-year life) to a 25-year life," Miville-Deschenes said. Miville-Deschenes said while the exact technique used to mine Copperwood is still being determined, the project could potentially create around 300 jobs - including 180-190 underground jobs.

"Typically in the industry, there's a multiplier of three or four times for services, contractors and suppliers," Miville-Deschenes said.

Not only is Copperwood farther along than White Pine North, the company's testing indicates the copper is easier to get - being located at approximately 250 meters underground compared to 800 meters at White Pine.

Highland officials also clarified while the company will be mining the same copper formation as the former White Pine mine, Highland's White Pine North is in a different location to the north of the old site.

Given the plan to develop both sites, Miville-Deschenes said the company was working to minimize the duplication of needs such as infrastructure development as much as possible when planning the Copperwood site.

"What we do at one place will have to support the other, or connect to the other, as much as possible," he said.

Highland Copper's Executive Vice President Carlos Bertoni said the company intended to start the White Pine project prior to the end of mining at Copperwood.

While he acknowledged the company's timeline for both projects is ultimately driven by copper prices, Miville-Deschenes said he was pleased with the current price of roughly $2.60 per pound and the way the prices are trending.

"We like where it is, and we like where it's going," Miville-Deschenes "Hopefully, it is going to continue to go up for a full cycle."

Prior to construction beginning at the Copperwood site, the company is working to complete its feasibility study to get a clearer picture of the exact size of the deposit and how to best develop it.

Part of this process is looking at a section of land the company owns the mineral rights to that is located in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources signed off on test drilling on the land earlier this year, and both Bertoni and Miville-Deschenes said the company planned to seek an amendment to its permit with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to mine the land it has the rights to in the park. Miville-Deschenes also said the company didn't necessarily need the permission to mine that section of the project before starting work elsewhere, meaning it could amend its permits at some point in the future to expand the scope of the mine to the area it has the rights to in the park.

While company officials acknowledged the prospect of mining in the park may be controversial, they stressed steps were being taken to minimize the impact on the park - including staying away from the Presque Isle River, which Bertoni referred to as a "no-go area." The company also halted the exploratory drilling due to loss of snow, in order to prevent the machinery from causing ruts and damaging the park.

During the press conference the officials also discussed the geology of the region and what the company's tests are indicating regarding the mineral composition of the Copperwood.

The copper content is roughly 1.65 percent copper on average, compared to an average content of 1 percent copper in the material being mined at the time of White Pine's closure. Silver is the only other metal found in the rock, Bertoni said.

According to figures shared at the press conference, the company believes Copperwood has 29.1 million metric tons of material, with 1.06 billion pounds of copper and 4.2 million ounces of silver. Samples from the site are being sent to an independent assayer for testing to establish verified figures.

Bertoni also said the type of copper being mined doesn't generate acid as a byproduct, simply oxidizing when exposed to water rather than changing the water's pH value.

White Pine North is expected to be the bigger of the two deposits, with Bertoni saying the price of copper would dictate the ultimate scope of the development as the exact size of the deposit is large enough its exact size is unknown.

"Some of the furthest holes (drilled) here at White Pine, they're like 10 miles away - they still cut the ore, every single hole cut it," Bertoni said. "So they had to stop (test drilling) somewhere - whether we can mine it or not is another question - (but) we don't know how big White Pine is."

Along with these two projects, Highland is developing a site on the Keweenaw Peninsula and is creating an exploratory group this year to search for additional projects in the copper belt that stretches through the Keweenaw Peninsula and part of the Canadian Shield, located in Baraga and Marquette counties.

"Every mine opens and every mines closes ... and after that you have to have other projects ready to come in and continue to provide the economic activity (to the area) as you go forward. So our vision is for the long term," said Bertoni.