Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
LONGUEUIL, Quebec — Highland Copper Company is reporting the latest mineral resource estimate for its Copperwood Project — located in northern Ironwood and Wakefield townships — shows more minerals on the site than previous test drillings indicated.
According to a company press release issued Thursday, the resource estimate prepared by an independent consulting firm shows a 46 percent increase in the site’s measured and indicated resources from the previous estimate dated April 15, 2015.
“There’s more copper within the permitted footprint than previously reported because of the additional drilling we did this past winter,” Tim Lynott, the finance manager for Highland’s Michigan operation, explained to the Daily Globe.
The new estimate puts the amount of minerals on the site at “42.5 million tons … containing 1.5 billion pounds of copper and 5.4 million ounces of silver in the measured and indicated resource category,” according to the release.
As a Canadian company, Lynott explained Highland has certain requirements it must meet regarding independent verification and levels of quality before the mineral amounts can be added to the measured and indicated category.
The measured category generally contains the amounts proven to be on the site, according to Lynott, while the indicated category deals with the probable minerals of a site.
The 2015 resource estimate put the Copperwood Project’s mineral estimate at 29.1 million tons, with 1.06 billion pounds copper and 4.2 million ounces of silver.
Lynott said the new numbers aren’t so much a discovery of previously unknown minerals as the company now has the necessary data to update the previous calculations.
The drilling program that was used to reach the new figures involved drilling 35 drill holes throughout the project’s footprint for a total of 6,784 meters of core extracted.
“Every drill hole intersects copper-silver mineralization, as expected,” a company spokesperson said in Thursday’s press release.
Regarding what impact the updated numbers will have on the development of the site, Lynott made clear Canadian financial regulations prevented him from talking about forecasts too much.
He said the feasibility study for the Copperwood Project still needs to be updated, but said Thursday’s announcement was “good news” for the effort to return mining to Gogebic County.
The feasibility study is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2018, with the goal of starting construction later next year.
In March, company officials visited the western U.P. and said if the project is developed on the current timeline, the company hopes to begin mining the Copperwood site in 2020 or 2021.
Copperwood is one of several projects Highland is developing in the Upper Peninsula, with other projects including White Pine North and developments in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
These projects are expected to get off the ground once mining begins at the Copperwood site.
