Copper Mountain Mining Corporation announces that construction of the new permanent secondary crusher at the Copper Mountain mine located in southern British Columbia continues to move forward as planned and on schedule.
Purchase orders for all of the major mechanical and electrical components have been placed. The main components of the crusher have arrived in Canada and have been transported via rail to Kamloops, BC where they are being prepared for transportation by a specialized truck to the mine site. The lower bowl assembly is the largest component piece of the crusher and weighs over 100 tonnes. Due to its size and weight special road permits were provided by the Department of Transportation in a timely manner to meet the schedule for the highway transportation to the mine site. These permits were received early last week and the lower bowl assembly has now been transported to the mine site. The Company engaged Nickel Bros Heavy Lifting and Transportation to complete this leg of the transportation which entailed closing the main highway between Kamloops and Princeton in 20km sections as the convoy moved down the road. It took four nights to make the 200 kilometer trip, because the transportation had to occur between midnight and 5 am each night to minimize traffic disruptions along the route.
This crusher will be the largest cone crusher installed in western Canada and has the ability to crush the 6 inch rock from the primary crusher down to 2 inches in size. The new crushing facility is designed to operate at a rate of 2,800 tpoh and is designed to meet the most demanding and high tonnage applications. Foundation work for the Crusher Slab is complete and it is being prepared for placement of the newly arrived lower bowl assembly. Once the lower bowl assembly is installed, building contractors will be mobilized to start the building erection. Following the building erection, the new conveyor system installation will commence in the spring time. The total cost of construction for the secondary crusher facility is estimated to be $40 million and construction is expected to be completed by mid-summer. Once installed, 100% of the mill feed will be sized to the 2 inch range, which will allow the mill to operate consistently at or above design capacity rates of 35,000 tpd.
The short term mitigating measures implemented in 2013 to increase mill throughput continue to be successful with January and February's operational results being in line with the production expectations.
Source: http://www.cumtn.com/