Major investments coming to Huckleberry Mine
Houston Today
Speaking Thursday to the Houston Chamber of Commerce, Vice General Manager Bryan Deagle said Huckleberry's 2012 budget will cover everything from a new tailings dam to major equipment and camp upgrades. "It's a huge investment by our ownership," Deagle said. Owners Imperial Metals and the Japan Group are banking on the long-term, he added, noting that this year's $100-million capital plan exceeds the mine's annual revenues.
Porphyry and Porphyry-Related Deposits
The Huckleberry porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit, located 29 km north of the Silver Bay property,
includes several ore bodies that are associated with porphyritic granodiorite intrusions of Late Cretaceous
age. Mineralization occurs primarily within hornfelsed volcanic rocks of the Jurassic Hazelton Group that
encompass the porphyritic intrusions.
Mineralization occurs as a stockwork of fractures and veinlets of chalcopyrite and lesser molybdenite in a
gangue that includes pyrite, quartz and anhydrite (Jackson and Illerbrun, 1995). The Huckleberry mine was
put into production in 1997 at a rate of 16,000 tonne-per-day. From 1997-2010 the mine produced a
total of 871.9 million pounds of copper, 8.1 million pounds molybdenum, 1.8 million ounces of silver, and
45,305 ounces of gold from the milling of 88.5 million tonnes of ore.
At the end of 2010, the Measured and Indicated Resource for the mine was 182.9 million tonnes grading
0.321% Cu. Recent discoveries on the property have extended the mine life of the operation to 2021
(Imperial Metals Corporation website).