Xstrata Reboots Zinc Mines
Xstrata Zinc is on track to reopen two mines in Sudbury, ON.
The Errington and Vermillion mines, which been closed for decades, are proving to be attractive again with a number of large zinc mines closing around the world.
Brad Ryder, of corporate affairs for Xstrata, construction would start by 2014, it’s a $350 million capital project. As for mine life, right now we’re looking at between 7 and 10 years and what we would do is mine the sites sequentially, he said.
We’d mine Errington deposit first and then the Vermillion deposit. The Errington Mine is the bigger of the two sites, with a 6 million tonne deposit, while the Vermillion site boasts a 3 million tonne deposit.
Errington 5.8 million tonne ore body with 4% zinc, 1.4% copper, 1% lead, 50 g/t silver and 0.7 g/t gold. We would be looking at a yearly concentrate of around 74,000 tonnes of zinc, 40,000 tonnes of copper and 12,000 tones of lead. The Errington mined from 1924 to 1928, while the Vermillion site was active from 1951 to 1957.
Zinc mines coming to their end of life, the Brunswick mine near Bathurst, NB. prepared to shut down, mine in Ireland called Lisheen, is closing and another in Australia closing soon. That’s roughly 15% of the world’s zinc production coming off-line next few years because of those three major mines. |
