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Canada

Red Chris Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotToday, Red Chris is still an open pit mining operation but with a limited life.

As part of the announcement of the Red Chris transaction, Newcrest revealed that it believed that the orebody had the potential to become a high-margin bulk underground block cave with an economic life of over 30 years (and potentially over 50 years). Accordingly, Newcrest accelerated the necessary drilling and studies, meeting major milestones including:
- commencement of construction of the box cut for the exploration decline (February 2021);
- announcement of the initial mineral resource estimate (March 2021); and
- completion of the pre-feasibility study for the block cave development (October 2021).

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Imperial Metals Corp. 30 % Indirect
Newmont Corp. 70 % Indirect
Newcrest Red Chris Mining Limited (operator) 70 % Direct
The Red Chris property was originally acquired in April 2007 by Red Chris Development Company Ltd. (RCDC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Imperial Metals Corporation. RCDC now owns a 30% beneficial interest in the Red Chris mine following the August 15, 2019 sale of a 70% interest to Newcrest Red Chris Mining Ltd. (NRCML), a subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest). RCDC and NRCML formed an unincorporated joint venture for the operation of Red Chris (Red Chris Joint Venture), with NRCML acting as operator. As of November 6, 2023, Newcrest was acquired by Newmont Corporation.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Porphyry
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

Red Chris is a porphyry copper deposit in the northern Intermontane Belt of the Canadian Cordillera. It is situated in the accreted geological terrane of Stikinia, which is dominated by island arc volcanic, sedimentary, and plutonic rocks of the Middle to Late Triassic Stuhini Group, and the Early to Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group. Stikinia hosts many important mineral deposits in the region, known as the Golden Triangle, ranging from active mine operations to early stage exploration projects.

Red Chris is in the Iskut district, on the northern edge of the Skeena Mountains. Most of the property is situated on the Todagin Upland plateau. The Red Chris deposit on the southern edge of the plateau is hosted by the Red stock, which was emplaced in the very Late Triassic into deformed Stuhini Group sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Lower Hazelton Group volcanic and sub-volcanic rocks, similar in age to the Red stock, dominate the western part of the Todagin plateau, unconformably overlying Stuhini Group. Post-mineralization erosion during the Early Jurassic was followed by deposition of mainly sedimentary upper Hazelton Group rocks, and the succeeding Bowser Lake Group in the Middle Jurassic; these units originally covered the partly eroded Red stock and Stuhini Group, but they are now preserved only along the southern margin of the plateau due to southeastward tilting in the Late Cretaceous.

The Red stock is an ENE-elongate intrusive complex up to 8 km long by 1.5 km wide at surface. It consists of a series of porphyries beginning with pre-mineral leucodiorite, which forms the bulk of the complex. This was intruded by quartz monzonite porphyries which were coincident with potassic alteration and quartz vein-hosted copper-gold mineralization. Finally, late and post-mineralization porphyries and dikes were intruded. The current Red Chris ore reserve, where open pit mining is ongoing, consists of the East Zone and the Main Zone each of which contain pods or clusters of copper- gold ore centred on the mineralizing porphyries. At surface, combined East Zone and Main Zone mineralization extends about 2,000 m along the stock’s east-northeast axis; in width, it ranges from at least 100 m in the East Zone to 650 m in the Main Zone. The depth of significant mineralization is over 1,200 m in the East Zone and about 1,000 m in the centre of the Main Zone. A further 1.5 km to the west of the open pit are the Gully and Far West exploration Zones, which have similar geological characteristics to the East and Main Zones. The Gully Zone footprint is approximately 400-500 m across, east-west. The Far West Zone has a smaller footprint and has seen less drilling than the other zones. The new East Ridge Zone several hundred metres east of the East Zone extends the known mineralized corridor at Red Chris to approximately 4 kilometres.

Mineralization consists of thin wavy or thicker planar quartz veins and stockworks containing chalcopyrite, bornite and magnetite; these minerals are also disseminated outside the veins. In the upper part of the ore deposit, potassic alteration is rarely preserved and the rocks are dominated by sericite-pyrite and clay-carbonate-hematite overprinting alterations; here, chalcopyrite and pyrite are the dominant sulfides, with bornite best preserved in the core of the East Zone. Gold occurs as microscopic inclusions in the copper sulfides. Molybdenite occurs locally in quartz veins, especially deeper and outside the high-grade core. The Red Chris deposit has been modified by syn-to post- mineralization faulting, including the Late Cretaceous South Boundary fault.

Red Chris is a typical porphyry copper deposit based on the composition of its host rocks, its alteration pattern and sequence, and its ore mineralogy. It may be classified as belonging to the high- potassium calc-alkalic type of porphyry system, which includes several world-class deposits such as Bingham (Utah).

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

FY2020 production outcomes are reported from date of acquisition (15 August 2019) to 30 June 2020.
CommodityUnits2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Copper M lbs  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe7263758458
Gold koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3642334726
Silver koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe13410413319195
All production numbers are expressed as metal in concentrate. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics202320222021202020192018201720162015
Daily milling rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe28,577 t29,228 t28,433 t26,371 t25,698 t
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Total tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe10,430,762 t10,668,313 t10,378,181 t9,651,738 t8,171,879 t
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Daily mining rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe130,000 t130,000 t100,000 t
Daily milling capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe30,000 t30,000 t30,000 t30,000 t

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Credits (by-product) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Cash costs Copper USD 2.45 / lb **   2.34 / lb **   1.93 / lb **  
Total cash costs (sold) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Total cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
All-in costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe
^ Guidance / Forecast.
** Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs

Currency202320222021
OP mining costs ($/t mined) CAD 5.79  4.42  4.13  
Processing costs ($/t milled) CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Financials

Units2024202320222021202020182017
Capital expenditures (planned) M USD  ....  Subscribe
Sustaining costs M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Capital expenditures M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 62.9  CAD 57.8  CAD
Revenue M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 255.7  CAD 289.1  CAD
After-tax Income M -89.7  CAD 0.4  CAD
EBIT M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
EBITDA M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Operating Cash Flow M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

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EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
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Aerial view:

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