Resource World Magazine

e d it or's c o mments Ellswor th D ic kson Mount Milligan Mine opens in British Columbia In this issue we have a roundup of exploration and mining projects in British Columbia. One of the more important events was the recent opening of the $1.57 billion Thompson Creek Metals Mount Milligan copper-gold mine about 150 km northwest of Prince George. In an interview, outgoing Chairman and CEO, Kevin Loughfrey told Resource World that Richard Haslinger discovered the huge-copper gold deposit back in the early 1980s although First Nations say that they were aware of surface mineralization before that time. The Mount Milligan Mine is a conventional truckshovel, open pit mine that is expected to produce 81 million lbs of copper and 195,000 oz gold per year for the estimated 22-year mine life. Proven and probable copper reserves stand at 2.1 billion lbs and 6 million oz gold. Mill capacity is 60,000 tonnes per day. "There were quite a few challenges along the way to production," said Loughfrey, "These included getting everything fully permitted, an effort that had been worked on for years, and putting together a team of experts in mine building that was led by Terry Owen. Then we had to secure a suitable workforce to build the mine. Sometimes there were as many as 1,200 people working at the mine site." Loughfrey pointed out that some of the equipment that had to be acquired was not off-the-shelf such as a 40-foot autogenous grinding mill. "Of course, we had to do this through the cold BC winters to get everything done on time," he said. Thompson Creek is known as a molybdenum miner and operates the Endako Mine in BC as well as the Thompson Creek Mine in Idaho. On the topic of diversification, Loughfrey said the company's rationale was that "it's great to be a moly company when moly prices are $35/lb, but not so great when it is $8/lb. We felt it made sense to diversify our basic commodities so we would be not so dependent on one metal. When one metal is down in price, perhaps the others would be up. We were of the view that copper and gold had good futures had had good supply-demand dynamics. That's what led us to Terrane Metals and Mount Milligan." "When we bought the property from Terrane, the plan was to have the workers commute either from Fort St. James or Mackenzie. However, we found that workers wanted to live on site to avoid the commute. We couldn't attract the work force we needed. So we are building a comfortable permanent camp," said Loughfrey. At full production the Mount Milligan operation will have about 400 employees, plus support services companies. Loughfrey said that the mine life can likely be extended as the deposit is open at one end and to depth. The current reserve calculations have been conservative, explained Loughfrey. "Compared to British Columbia, as you look around the world, there are many more problems in other jurisdictions," said Loughfrey. "The two issues that you face in BC are the permitting process that is long and cumbersome to some extent, which means there is a long time with no revenue on the hope that you will get permitted and into production. Then everyone in the investment world looks at the First Nations issues as a difficulty. There is a lack of clarity as to what it takes to get First Nations agreements. Overall, British Columbia is a good jurisdiction in which to operate." On a personal note, Loughfrey is temporarily retiring and looking at some travel plans. He said he will be back in the mineral industry in the New Year. Jacques Perron has succeeded Loughfrey as Chairman of Thompson Creek Metals. n Ellsworth Dickson, Editor-in-Chief Email: editor@resourceworld.com T: 604 484 3800 | 1 877 484 3800 november 2013 www.resourceworld.com 5

• Cover