Activity resumes at Craigmont Mine site

Crushing started Thursday and floatation began on Sunday, the first sign of any mining activity on the property in 34 years since the Craigmont Mine shut down because of low silver prices in 1982.

Flash forward and the Nicola Mining Company has five contracts with smaller mines in the Interior.

“All those contracts are milling partnerships where we mill the material for the mine and we than share the profit 50/50,” says Espig. “We have those agreements in place, we just have to slowly get better at the recovery.”

It’s taken four years and 21 million dollars to build the mill, which will have the capacity to process 200 tonnes a day.

Even after 34 years, there’s still plenty of minerals to extract in the hills above the mill, namely copper. Geologists like Paul Johnson have been re-examining previous work done in the area.

“It’s easiest to find new deposits close to one that are already known,” says Johnson. “So it would be a case of looking at what’s already been identified. There’ve been drill holes that have very interesting grades of copper in them that haven’t had any follow-up.”

Despite the fall in copper prices, Nicola Mining says its blueprint of producing high-grade ore makes it somewhat immune to the fluctuating stock market.

“We’re not in the business of doing large volume, low-grade, so if you were to say where we are compared to other mining companies, really what works right is, high grades will work with low metal prices and they work even better when metal prices are high,” says Espig.

It’s a model they hope will work as they explore an area that hasn’t been touched in over three decades.

by Chad Klassen

Activity resumes at Craigmont Mine site

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