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My Take on Snow Lake - March 13, 2017

Lalor forges forward
Hudbay’s Lalor Mine manager Robert Carter.
Hudbay’s Lalor Mine manager Robert Carter.

Lalor Mine manager Robert Carter moves effortlessly to his desk, situated in a corner office of the mine’s main complex. Slim, analytical and energetic, he explains that unforeseen circumstances have postponed a prearranged tour of Lalor underground on this day. However, he is still willing to be interviewed and will reschedule the tour for another day. Settling behind the desk, the 44-year-old father of three provides some personal background before beginning the interview.

Carter grew up in southern Manitoba and graduated as a geological engineer from the University of Manitoba. He has close to 20 years of experience in mining, starting in 1997 with Hudbay, in the geology department at the Leaf Rapids Ruttan mine. His experience spans mine engineering and planning, exploration, project evaluation, resource and reserve estimating and includes stops at Anglo American’s Lisheen Mine in Ireland, as well as Hudbay’s Trout Lake and close involvement at Chisel North and 777 mines. Additionally, he spent a two-year stint consulting out of Toronto, writing technical reports for junior companies and as a geology/engineering liaison.

Carter says he is impressed with Snow Lake, the Lalor mine and its employees. “What I find here is a very strong work ethic in the people of Snow Lake, and they hold each other accountable. So it is much more a family or team environment here than what I’ve seen at other operations. They care!” He says local workers have respect for one another, for management and management in turn has that same respect for them.

Delving into the interview, Carter explains that Hudbay is presently working on an updated technical report for the Lalor mine. Expanding, he says the company mined approximately 1.1 million tonnes, or close to 3,000 tonnes per day last year; in the current year they are planning to increase production. Asked about mill capacity for the increase, Carter says the Stall Mill, is capable of processing 3,500 tonnes per day at present, but with planned refurbishments, they expect to be in a position during the first and second quarter of next year to increase that capacity.

The Lalor technical report will be released near the end of March 2017, after the mine plan and reserves have been finalized. The report will also provide an updated life of mine. Current mine life, based on last year’s reserves, is 14 years. “That being said, mining at a higher production rate will reduce mine life, but keep the operation sustainable during periods of challenging metal prices. There will always be gains and losses as we go through the years and investing in exploration to extend the life is of high priority.”

Carter says that they are not specifically mining gold right now; however, as they mine base metals, they are taking the gold material as well. “At lower depths – below 950 m level – the gold and base metals seem to separate,” he explained. “Separating enough from a mining perspective that you have to leave some sort of pillar in between. So the idea is that this material below 950 m would be better suited to go to a gold processing plant.” At present when Lalor’s gold is up against the base metals or in contact with them, it has enough copper mineralization with it that it goes to the Stall Mill and is floated with the copper concentrate. This gives them a current gold recovery, with no dedicated circuit, of 55 to 60 per cent.

In order to increase their recovery and with an eye on processing the ore from Lalor’s rich gold zones, Hudbay recently purchased the Snow Lake Mine property and infrastructure. Carter says that they have a rough idea of when they will incorporate that property’s mill into processing Lalor’s gold zone material. He added that a lot of what is in the Snow Lake Mine mill, by way of the crushing and grinding circuits can be used, but they will have to install some sort of floatation system to remove and retain copper. There is no immediate plan to go underground at the Snow Lake Mine, although it is an asset.

Moving along, the mine manager was asked about area and underground exploration. He replied that most exploration currently going on within the Manitoba Business Unit is in Snow Lake. Noting that there was a fair bit of exploratory drilling in 2016 – generally around Lalor’s gold zone, they are now surface drilling at the nearby “Pen Zone” (seven km east of Lalor), “seventeen short holes, about 3,000 m.,” which will wrap up within the month of March. “It was drilled in the ‘90s and is a small, captive deposit with limited growth, but we need to drill it on a tighter spacing to confirm the resource and build our confidence,” he said. “It is a deposit that we can likely trench from surface or put a quick ramp into. It provides some optionality to source additional zinc enriched ore from here if required to complement the Lalor mine plan.” As well, the closing of Reed Mine could allow them access to its surface infrastructure and assets, if needed at Pen.

Asked if Lalor would eventually take over Hudbay Manitoba’s flagship status, Carter replied, “Yeah, it’s started already. The pendulum or centre of gravity for the Manitoba Business Unit is swinging to Snow Lake quite quickly and it will stay here for a number of years.” There will be a fair bit of growth in the Lalor mine in the near term. They plan to ramp up the base metal zones production, with the goal of maximising the hoisting capability of 6,000 tpd when the gold material comes on line. The current number of Hudbay employees at Lalor is 250, with another 60 at the Stall Concentrator; this doesn’t include contractors. With the ramp up and depending on technological advances in mining, the number of Hudbay employees at Lalor could reach 350. Notwithstanding, Carter says that Hudbay is experiencing some difficulty hiring workers. “It has been a major issue for us,” he said. “A lot of the workforce comes from Flin Flon and enticing people to relocate to Snow Lake has been a challenge.” With travel being much easier than in past decades, people are not as open to relocating. “But the idea is that we will have a larger operation here, and if we can entice people to stay in town, that would be to our benefit.” Carter says the camp is almost full to capacity (170 “on rotation” people currently) and once their paste fill plant construction begins, they are going to have to do something different. He adds that he can’t see the camp closing anytime soon.

In respect to capital expenditures, a proposed paste fill plant has been permitted and approved; it is expected to be commissioned in February 2018. They are presently investigating bedrock for the site and a series of underground bore holes for the plant have been drilled. Work on the underground distribution pipeline will begin in March 2017. This paste fill will become an enabler to increase tonnage at the mine. The fill itself is a dense, non-draining slurry made from single or a combination of several suitable solid materials and produced to toothpaste consistency. Once it sets up in a mined-out area, it provides ground support so that workers and equipment can go back into the area and further mine ore adjacent to it.

Currently, the mine is being overdeveloped due to a need for waste. Nearly half of the seven mining rounds taken per day at Lalor are into waste rock, which is in turn used for backfill. Carter says while they wait for the paste fill plant to come online, they have begun to look at other options. “We already have these bore holes (eight inches in diameter) from surface … we’ve spent money on them. The paste fill plant is not going to be commissioned until essentially the first quarter of 2018 … so how can we utilize those bore holes”” he asks rhetorically. “One idea that we are working on is cemented rockfill for an isolated area. That’s working out good for us. The other idea is a temporary paste plant; to use those bore holes before the permanent paste plant is operational.”

One final thing Carter wants to talk about is the move to integrate the latest technological advances in mining to the Lalor operation. He explains that the mine was built with the same technology as was used to build Flin Flon’s 777 mine, but over the last 10 to 15 years there have been huge technological advances in mining. “We (Lalor) were the first in all of Hudbay to operate a LHD (Load Haul Dump) from surface via tele-remote with autonomous (self-directing within set and safe parameters); meaning the entire stope was mined out from surface other than a few oversize pieces that we had to deal with underground.” Operated from a room in Lalor’s office complex, the machinery continually scans the walls, building it into memory, operates the bucket, drives the equipment and dumps into an ore pass or transfer raise. “We see this as being an enabler to increase our tonnage and also allows us the opportunity to take advantage of the time between shifts on blast clearance, when no one is in the mine … we can capture more tonnes.” They are looking at other equipment or infrastructure modifications, such as driving a large Alimak raise-ore pass. “For the last four years, we haven’t been using gravity to our benefit … we have been trucking,” said the bespectacled mine manager. “With trucking, you need more ventilation; there is more maintenance, so we are trying to use some of the obvious helpers. How that material is transferred into the back of a truck … we are looking at different loading options also. “

“The primary focus is a successful ramp up in order to get to a continuous state,” Carter concludes. “I think we can do it and I think we can do it faster than people first envisioned.”

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