Eagle East produces first load of ore to Humboldt Mill

CHAMPION — The Lundin Mining Company and Eagle Mine was pleased to announce an increase in the Probable Mineral Reserve estimate for the Eagle East ore body and today they saw the first load of ore from Eagle East.

“Yea, this has been a long project,” explained Kristen Mariuzza, Eagle Mine Managing Director. “This is a pretty significant milestone for us. We have been working on Eagle East for several years and to have the first load brought to the mill today is exciting for the whole team. Whether that is exploration; that discovered the deposit, or the project team designed it, or even the underground contractor. It has been a fantastic project.”

The underground infill and extension drilling from the past year has increased the Eagle East Mineral Reserve estimate to 2.3 million tonnes at 3.2% nickel and 2.6% copper.
Now with the increase this will continue to provide a growing workforce for the surrounding community and the community won’t see much change when it comes to the production of mine.

“We are continuing our production rate, the same as it has always been,” said Mariuzza. “The employees will be retaining the employees that are always there. So from an external standpoint you won’t see much of a change at all.”

Due to the company mining from a new deposit near eagle mine they did discover the deposit to be of a higher grade of ore.
So they will be going through a mixing process to keep things consistent.

“It is really similar to Eagle; the type of ore that it is,” said Mariuzza. “But yes it is a little bit of a higher grade ore. So what we do is blend it with some ore that is a little bit lower grade so that it can be consistent in the mill.”

When the deposit does eventually run out, they will continue with plan that has been emplaced since the beginning and that is to restore the surrounding environment.

“When the deposit runs out we will start our closure plan,” explained josh Lam, Mine Technical Services Superintendent for Eagle Mine. “This means we will be reclaiming the mine site, the mills site and putting it back to the conditions that we started the construction project with.”

This new ore deposit will extend the mines life until 2025.