A Disaster for Capstone Mining Corp?
Wildfire creeps closer to Minto Mine as milling operations continue
Precautionary measures, such as the evacuation of between 40 and 50 workers, have been taken as a wildfire continues to burn out of control 7 kilometers from the Minto Copper Mine.
Author: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: Monday , 07 Jun 2010
RENO, NV -
As of Sunday, it was reported that a wildfire fire continues to burn approximately 7 kilometers from the Minto Copper Mine in the central Yukon.
Operator Capstone Mining said 50 people left the mine site on Friday, but that 100 people remained on site after mining crews departed.
Capstone mining President Stephen Quin said flying out some workers lessens the burden should a complete evacuation of all 150 workers be necessary. Most of those evacuated are working for Whitehorse-based contract miner Pelly Construction.
Milling operations continued as of Sunday morning as the fire exceeded 3,400 hectares. The mine produced 51.9 million pounds of copper last year. Minto also produced 28,579 ounces of gold and 299,767 ounces of silver in 2009; Capstone has targeted 50 million to 55 million pounds of copper for 2010.
The wildfire was believed to have been started May 30th by high winds which blew a dead into contact with the spur line supplying power to the Minto Mine, igniting a ground fire that is spreading very quickly as a result of hot, dry conditions and strong winds.
There are 19 active fires in the Yukon, the largest at 20,500 hectares burning in the wilderness zone south of Dawson City. Most of these fires were caused by lightening.
Yukon Wildlands Fire Management has crews to protect critical mine infrastructure and contain the fire. Capstone Mining has released mining equipment from its contractor Pelly Construction to assist with fire containment. The Minto Mine has put a number of firebreaks and water sprinkler systems around critical or vulnerable infrastructure, and ensured it has water pumping capacity available to assist with fire fighting on site if needed.
In a news release, Capstone said, ‘As a result of site clearing during construction of the mine, all site infrastructure has a reasonable break between it and the vegetation, but additional fire break preparation, setting up sprinklers to wet down vulnerable infrastructure, establishing water distribution systems and other fire prevention recommendations from Yukon Wildlands Fire Management are being implemented."
Grid power to the mine has been turned over and Minto is running on diesel generators.
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