Copper Mountain Project On Schedule
VANCOUVER, BC - Copper Mountain Mining Corporation reported that construction work on the Company's Copper Mountain Project is proceeding on schedule and as planned. Erection of steel for the concentrator building is underway with the newly purchased 275 ton crane that will also be utilized during operations for maintenance on the primary crusher. Concrete foundations have been completed for the new 5 bay truck shop to accommodate the new 240 ton capacity haul trucks. The contract to supply and erect the truck shop building steel has been let and steel erection is scheduled to start in June. To date a total of 16,500 m of concrete has been poured, with a majority of the concrete coming from the Company's batch plant located at the mine site.
The mobile mining fleet is being delivered to site in preparation for preproduction mining activities that are to commence this summer. To date two large Komatsu 375 Dozers are in operation and the process of assembling three 240 ton haul trucks and one WA1200 loader is proceeding. The trucks and the loader are expected to be work ready by the end of May. Copper Mountain's partner, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, has been progressing well on the debt financing for the Copper Mountain Project, which is anticipated to close towards the end of the month, with initial draw-down of funds planned for June. The lenders of the project debt include some large Japanese commercial banks and the Export Credit Agency. There are a total of 150 construction personnel on site, and the Company is now starting to crew up its operating team. Bill Dodds has been appointed Mine General Manager and has joined the Company effective May 1, 2010. Bill brings with him over 25 years of mine operational experience which is an excellent compliment to the very seasoned team already in place. The overall schedule for the project remains unchanged with preproduction mining expected to start late in the second quarter of 2010, while construction of the processing facilities is on schedule for full production by June 2011 at the rate of 35,000 TPD. Copper Mountain owns 75% and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation owns 25% of the Copper Mountain Project. The 18,000 acre mine site is located 15 km south of the town of Princeton in southern British Columbia. The Copper Mountain Project has a current resource of approximately 5 billion pounds of copper and it is Copper Mountain's goal to develop the Copper Mountain Project as a mid tier copper and precious metal mine to produce approximately 100 million pounds of copper per year by mid 2011. The company's address is 1700 700 W Pender Street Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 Tel: 604.682.2992 Fax: 604.682.2993.