Hudbay Minerals held an information/question/answer session on the proposed refurbishment and operation of the Snow Lake Mine mill, on the evening of May 29. The event took place from 7-9 p.m. in Snow Lake’s Lawrie Marsh Hall and was attended by close to 100 interested citizens.
The meeting began with Hudbay’s director of health and safety and Aboriginal and external affairs Richard Trudeau making introductions of Hudbay and AECOM staff in attendance, after which he presented those who would address issues during the event and answer questions. They were: Hudbay project manager Arsalan Talebzadeh, Hudbay director of environment Jay Cooper, Hudbay senior process engineer Karl Hoover and AECOM senior scientist Cliff Samoiloff.
Jay Cooper was first to speak and gave a synopsis on the positioning of the mine, mill and tailings areas being discussed. He then got into why they were currently looking at opening the Snow Lake Mine mill. “The ore being mined at Lalor (Mine) contains copper, zinc, gold, and silver,” said Cooper. “The Stall Concentrator is really, really good at getting the copper and zinc … so what do you do with the gold? The best chance of getting that economically in large portions is through cyanide leaching – which doesn’t exist presently in the capacity at Stall Mill.” To address this shortfall, Cooper said they looked at a number of alternatives such as not processing gold ore, adding a gold circuit to the Stall Concentrator, processing gold ore in Flin Flon, and refurbishing and operating the Snow Lake Mine Mill.
After giving an outline of the Snow Lake Mine, mill and tailings facility and Hudbay’s acquisition of all three, Cooper stated that after careful study the company has decided to go ahead and process gold ore from the Lalor Mine at the Snow Lake Mine mill. He explained the circuit of milling ore and ended logically at the deposal of tailings. Cooper then overviewed tailings and their storage as being either subaqueous (under water) or subaerial (open to air). The tailings from the Stall mill are stored in the Anderson Tailings Impoundment Area (ATIA), which is subaqueous, whereas the Snow Lake mill tailings were/are stored at the Birch Lake Tailings Storage Facility (BLTSF) which is subaerial. Due to the physical alterations that would be required at the BLTSF and potential challenges in respect to water quality, the decision was made to have tails moved via pipeline to the more adequate ATIA.
Cooper advised that in starting up the Snow Lake Mine mill, the milling process will differ from its past method. Nevertheless, existing infrastructure will be used as much as possible. However in order to handle the Lalor Gold/Copper ore, they will construct an ore load-out facility to store the mine ore, a flotation building to allow for the separation of copper concentrate, and a lime silo outside the mill building.
To move the ore the 17 kilometres by road to the Snow Lake Mine mill, it will take approximately three ore trucks per hour, operating 15 hours per day … this, over a narrow bridge that is rumoured to be 50 years old. Cooper advised that AECOM has conducted a traffic impact study and determined that no upgrades (includes bridge, traffic controls) will be required along the ore haul route.
The pipeline transporting the tailings from the Snow Lake Mine mill to the ATIA will consist of a six-inch as well as an eight-inch line and has two different routes under consideration at this point – one alongside Highway 392 and near residential property, the other following a Manitoba Hydro transmission corridor to the north of the highway, which they note limits the required footprint. The company says that the pipeline will be constructed and operated in accordance with Hudbay’s most current design standards and criteria, but both options would have to cross Snow Creek.
Cooper then asked AECOM’s Cliff Samoiloff to outline the investigations taking place in the project area by AECOM’s environmental assessment team. After doing so, he stated that it is hoped this will be completed and filed by the end of 2018 and if successful, a permit for work will be issued at some point in 2019.
Following the formal portion of the meeting, a question-and-answer session took place. The first question was on the timing of the project and why it took three years to make a decision on using the mill. The answer had to do with proving up the gold resource they had prior to going ahead with the project. Another question was asked in respect to where the water to run the mill will come from. The answer was that there will be a reclaim water line that will run parallel with the tailings line … it will supply the bulk of water for the process. A question was then asked about the construction, shrouding, and heating of the tailings lines. They will be benched in sand, bermed with a metre of sand, and freeze protection will be constant diesel powered pumping. In the case of break/leak detection, it will be double contained in key areas (creek) with detection probes and fibre optics running the entire span. The pipe is heavy walled and fusion-welded. The answerer assured the audience that response time for a leak or break would be “very quick.” The next questioner asked how the company could confidently say they weren’t going to damage the road into the community, given the current condition of the highway used for existing hauls. They will study the route and react with MIT in respect to their findings. In answer to a question about whether they ever considered a dedicated haul road, the answering official stated that they did look at such a route, but it proved to be an inferior option opposed to the highway. There were also questions about underground haulages, water quality, need for a bladder in the ATIA, timelines and traffic disturbances. However, one of the most interesting questions of the evening was whether there would be any net benefit to the town other than more noise, dust, and 50 more people in Hudbay’s camp. The questioner also wondered if Hudbay would pay more taxes to the town. Richard Trudeau advised they were currently discussing taxes and payment-in-lieu with the town. He added that the startup would result in 40 to 50 new jobs and the construction phase would bring numerous jobs as well. He said that the company would have the opportunity to start looking at the camp as a dormitory after the construction phase had finished. Which could mean workers would have their room until they gave it up, rather than moving out and back in at the end and start of each set of shifts.
Another information session will be held in the fall of 2018 to share the results of the baseline investigations; as well, an environmental assessment report will be prepared, and Hudbay will file a notice of alteration (to the property) to be considered by Manitoba Department of Sustainable Development.
