New Secondary Crusher Operating At Capacity

VANCOUVER, BC - Copper Mountain Mining Corporation reported production results for the year ended December 2014 from the Copper Mountain mine located in southern British Columbia.

In 2014 the mine produced 81 million pounds of copper, 22.6 thousand ounces of gold, and 443.7 thousand ounces of silver. The mill averaged 89.4% operating time for the year and a total of 11.1 million tonnes of ore was milled at an average grade of 0.40 % Copper.  Copper production in the fourth quarter totaled 20.3 million pounds.

The new secondary crusher that was put into operation in August is now operating at its designed capacity of 3,000 tpoh.  Following several key adjustments to the secondary crusher circuit at the end of December, immediate improvements to mill throughput were seen. The mill has started the year on a positive note with an average throughput of 36,000 tpd in the first half of January with a 92.2 percent operating time.

During the 2014 year, mining activities continued from both the Pit 2 and Pit 3 areas and averaged approximately 176,300 tonnes per day. A total of 60.1 million tonnes of material was mined, including 18.8 million tonnes of ore and 41.3 million tonnes of waste. The projected life of mine strip ratio is 2 to 1 but higher in the early years.

The Company's goal for 2015 is to continue to optimize performance of the Copper Mountain Mine and to maximize copper production in spite of the slightly lower projected head grade for 2015. The new secondary crusher is working well and is providing a consistently finer feed to the SAG mill which has resulted in a smoother operation with higher throughput. The majority of ore is scheduled from Pit 2 in 2015. The planned mining rate is 185,000 tpd for the year. The 2015 copper production forecast is 80 million pounds based on a mill throughput rate of 37,500 tpd and a mill feed grade of 0.33% Cu.