Sudbury nickel and copper developer Magna Mining sees 13 years' worth of underground mining life at its Crean Hill project.
The company released a new preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on Sept. 17 of its revitalization plans of the former Inco nickel and copper mine, 35 kilometres west of the city, for both open-pit and underground mining.
This PEA is based on underground mining only.
Magna began test mining this summer at the surface of the decommissioned Inco asset it acquired in 2022, trucking off a bulk sample to Glencore for processing.
The ambitious Sudbury-focussed mining startup made news recently with a massive asset acquisition of a working copper mine in the city from KGHM along with a stable of development prospects in the Sudbury basin. Crean Hill is one of its foundational assets in the Sudbury mining camp.
In the PEA, the initial phase of underground mining would commence with a 15-month advanced exploration program followed by 12 months of a pre-production ramp-up period and then 13 years of commercial production.
Magna has a mineral resource estimate of more than 30 million tonnes at Crean Hill. The average underground production rate is pegged at 2,200 tonnes per day.
The pre-production cost to build this is very pretty low, at $27.7 million.
In the news release, Magna said it’s targetting “higher margin, primary feed” at the outset of mining for a “rapid payback and (to) minimize upfront capital requirements while simultaneously mitigating the potential impact of low metal prices.”
The underground plan is to drive a ramp down to gain access to near-surface mining areas. As mining proceeds beyond 700 metres, Magna will be dewatering and rehabilitating Crean Hill’s former No. 2 shaft, which will be used for hoisting and moving personnel as activities go deeper.
In a statement, Magna management said it was “excited and encouraged” by the PEA results.
“A low-capital approach of establishing a new surface portal will provide quick access to the resource, allowing us to offset capital costs with early revenues,” said Magna COO Jeff Huffman in a statement.
“This PEA also benefits from increased certainty on third-party processing terms. The project timeline has been de-risked by having environmental permits approved and in-hand, as well as more detailed stope planning and sequence optimization.”
Since its a brownfield site, Magna said there are no requirements for a federal or provincial environmental assessment. Permits for advanced exploration at Crean Hill have been received.