Copper Mountain Mine:
Photo Gallery
Jim O'Rourke, CEO of Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, congratulating all the stakeholders for their contributions.
Honorable Rich Coleman, Minister of Energy and Mines, Province of British Columbia, congratulating the Copper Mountain Mine on the benefit to both the regional economy and the entire province.
Ribbon Cutting at the Official Opening Ceremony of the Copper Mountain Mine (left to right) Copper Mountain Ambassadors alongside Consulate General of Japan, Hideki Ito, President & CEO of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Hiroshi Yao & President of Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, Jim O'Rourke.
Line up of locals waiting for access to the mine site as buses filled up to drive visitors up Copper Mountain Road.
The Copper Mountain Mine hosted about 1700 people from around the province on a full day of mine tours, music and dignitary celebrations during the Official Opening Ceremony of the mine (August 18th 2011).
Looking north, the new mill will be processing 35,000 TPD with annual copper production of 105 million lbs (plus gold & silver).
Aerial shot of the new concentrator building and the coarse ore stock pile, looking south.
One of thirteen 240 ton Komatsu haul trucks.
Aerial shot of the mine, looking north, with Pit 3 in the foreground.
By successfully combining pits #1, #2, and #3 into one merged "Super Pit", will allow for greater access to the mineralized areas. The resource is 5 billion lbs of copper with gold and silver as secondary credits.
The 240 ton-capacity-haulage trucks require 3 passes from the hydraulic shovel, to be filled to capacity, before the ore is transported to the primary crusher.
Mining activities at Copper Mountain started with a pushback on the western wall of Pit 3 but eventually operations will extend into pit 1. As pit 1 is expanded, it will merge with pit 2 until all three pits are converged into one super pit.
The newly built five-bay maintenance shop showing one of the 240-ton-capacity haulage trucks.
Bill Dodds, general manager at Copper Mountain, inspects steel chains employed to protect the $100,000 loader tires from rock cuts.
The mobile mining fleet consists of 2 PC 8000 hydraulic shovels (Komatsu), 13 830 E 240 ton haul trucks (Komatsu) , 1 WA 1200 Loader (Komatsu) , 2 D375 Dozers, 1 16M Grader, 2 AC271 rotary drills and 1 AC351 Rotary drill.
Pre-production mining activities commences on the Copper Mountain Mine in November 2010 upon the arrival of the mine's main loading unit, the Komatsu PC 8000 hydraulic shovel.
Mining activities on the western wall of Pit 3
Caption: In November 2010, Komatsu hosted a celebration at the mine to mark their commissioning of the 75th PC8000 shovel to be manufactured worldwide.
A 240 ton haulage truck dumps ore into the primary crusher that crushes 60 inch rocks into 6 inch pieces.
10 story high primary crusher and the approximately one-kilometer long ore conveyor.
The coarse ore stock pile contains 4 days worth of mill feed.
The concentrator facilities are operated from a state-of-the art control room.
The modern and efficient process plant is a facility where the ore is processed from the mine to separate out key components and prepare them for export.
Panoramic view of the interior of the process plant. Real life size of the concentrator building is as high as a ten story building and as long as 1.5 football fields.
The discharge from the primary crusher is the feed to the SAG mill. The SAG mill breaks the ore down into smaller pieces with friction and impact with 5 inch diameter steel balls. It is powered with electric motors.
Major milling equipment had an estimated delivery time of 30 months so the company had to order the pieces prior to completion of the feasibility study, to stay on track with their target schedule.
Discharge from the 34 foot diameter SAG mill is less than 2 inches in size.
An interior view of a portion of the new process plant: SAG mill on the left, ball mill on the right, and concentrate thickener in the foreground.
One of two 24 foot diameter by 40 foot long long ball mills with 17,000 horsepower drive.
The ground rock and water with no copper mineralization flows to the tailings management facility where the water is re-used in the mill. Approximately 76% of the total water requirements for the mill process is recycled from the tailings management facility.
The separation of the barren rock from the copper minerals is completed in the rougher flotation cells.
A reagent is added inside the flotation cells to coat the copper particles.
Copper mineral particles stick to the bubbles and float to the top.
After passing the floatation process, the cleaner flotation concentrate, is sent to the thickener to settle to a consistency of approximately 50% solids. This thickened concentrate is then pumped to the filter press panels where the moisture content is reduced to approximately 9% moisture.
Copper Concentrate, the final product at the mine, is filtered to 8% moisture and contains copper, gold and silver. Here it is being sampled by a laboratory technician before it is loaded into the concentrate trucks to be transported to the Vancouver Wharf for ocean shipment to Japan.
Specially built 50- tonne nine-axle B-train truck units.
Trucks unload on the newly built truck tipper. Then the concentrate is stored until and ready for shipment to Japan.
Jim O'Rourke, CEO and Rod Shier, CFO of Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, inspecting the arrival of the first concentrate truck to the Vancouver Wharf.
Loading the concentrate at the Vancouver Port from the newly built loading facility specially built for the company, onto the cargo ship for further treatment at Mitsubishi Materials Corporation's Onahama smelter.
September 3rd 2011 - Copper Mountain ships first load of concentrate to Japan.
Construction of one of two new 24 foot diameter ball mills in early 2011.
