THE NORTHERN MINER - DAILY NEWS - Jun 17, 2011
Trevali shares leap on Halfmile
2011-06-17
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Trevali Mining Corp. (TV-T) saw its shares jump 16% a day after providing a construction update on its Halfmile zinc-lead-silver-copper deposit in New Brunswick.
The company started development work on the Halfmile deposit in March, and says the project is on track to begin producing 2,000 tonnes per day by the third quarter of 2011.
"The support of the First Nations, local communities, workforces and contractors, and our major shareholder Xstrata Zinc, has been instrumental in keeping the company's project on track for third quarter production," said Paul Keller, Trevali's vice-president of operations, in a press release.
Trevali plans to boost the processing rate to 4,000 tonnes per day in 2013-14, with plans of putting its nearby Stratmat polymetallic deposit into production as a satellite mine to Halfmile.
Meanwhile at Halfmile, the company completed building a 3-km access road, secured major underground mining equipment, and started drilling and blasting on the portal excavation.
The miner is also working on finalizing a toll mining and offtake agreement with Xstrata Zinc, noting that it would be custom milling at Xstrata's Brunswick #12 complex in the last quarter of 2011, for about three years.
While the company advances its Halfmile-Stratmat project, it's also pushing the Satander zinc-lead-silver project in Peru closer to production.
Trevali teamed up with Glencore International to get the mine at Satander up and running by late 2011.
Spanning 44 sq. km in the infamous Central Peruvian polymetallic belt, the mine is expected to start producing at a rate of 2,000 tonnes a day, before ramping up to full production of 4,000 tonnes a day by 2013.
Some 17 km west of Santander, Trevali is upgrading the Tingo run-of-river hydroelectric generating station, which has been in operation since 1958. The company plans to boost the generating capacity from 1.6 megawatts to about 8.8 megawatts and connect the line to the Peruvian National Energy grid. The expansion is expected to be completed by mid-2012.
Also in the Central Peruvian polymetallic belt, is the company's Huampar silver mine, which saw past production of about 2.5 million tonnes of ore averaging 185 grams silver per tonne, 1.6 grams gold per tonne, 5% zinc and 3.8% lead.
Trevali says the mine is in good shape and came with a fully permitted 400-tonne-per-day processing plant.
In northern Manitoba, Trevali has development studies underway at the past-producing Ruttan copper-zinc mine.
Following the update on Halfmile, Trevali shares gained 21¢ to close at $1.50 on June 17.