Wallbridge produces 750,000 pounds of copper

Sudbury-based Wallbridge Mining Company has shipped 44,000 tonnes of ore from its Broken Hammer open pit mine to the Redstone Mill in Timmins since August.

Since operation at the mine started, Wallbridge has delivered more than 1,000 tonnes of copper concentrate to the mill, where it has produced 750,000 pounds of copper, 1,400 ounces of palladium, 750 ounces of platinum, 4,000 ounces of silver and 400 ounces of gold.

At current metal prices, Wallbridge estimates the smelter net revenues to be at $4.7 million.

“As is typical with every start-up project, we faced some challenges in the first couple of months with achieving mining rates due to unusually wet weather and with milling due to lower than expected platinum and gold recoveries,” said Marz Kord, president and CEO of Wallbridge, in a release.

“Our copper and palladium recoveries are now better than expected and the platinum and gold recoveries are closer to the expected range. The project production rate is now on budget and additional modifications are being implemented to further improve platinum and gold recoveries.”

The company has been able to reach a production rate of 800 tonnes per day.

The Broken Hammer project, located in the Sudbury Basin, contains reserves of copper, nickel and platinum group metals of around 193,000 tonnes.

Wallbridge hired Sudbury's William Day Construction Limited as the project's mining contractor.