Canadian resource company Copper Mountain Mining Corporation announced today that construction of its processing plant is now complete and production has commenced.
Mining has been proceeding as planned and has been delivering ore to the primary crusher since mid April. The company has been stock piling ore as part of preproduction mining activities.
The coarse ore stock pile at the mill has in excess of 190,000 tonnes of mill feed that has been crushed in the company's new primary crusher. On May 28, 2011 the commissioning of the mill was started with the first ore being processed. With the mechanical equipment adjustments completed, production began on Saturday 4 June. After a smooth start up full production is expected be achieved by mid June.
The company received its production permit on April 1, 2010, and today congratulated its contractors, suppliers, and its operating team for overcoming the challenges involved in achieving the planned June 2011 production start.
The Copper Mountain Project has a current resource of approximately 5 billion pounds of copper. The 18,000 acre mine site is located 20 km south of the town of Princeton in southern British Columbia, and the Project is on schedule to produce approximately 100 million pounds of copper per year by mid 2011.
The official mine opening ceremony will be held in mid August 2011, details to be announced in due course.
