Taseko Mines Ltd. plans to add approximately 140 full-time jobs to its Gibraltar mine workforce once proposed upgrades are completed.
In addition, there will be several hundred construction jobs and indirect positions servicing the mine during the upgrade that is scheduled to begin this spring and continue over the next 20 months.
The growth is due to the company’s board of directors recent approval of the mine’s development plan that will include the construction of a 30,000 ton per day concentrator. The additional capacity will increase Gibraltar’s annual copper production to approximately 180 million pounds.
It is anticipated to cost the company approximately $325 million for the concentrator and molybdenum plant and $90 million for mining equipment.
“This is very important news for Williams Lake,” says Brian Battison, vice president of corporate affairs for Taseko. “The Cariboo region could use some good news in terms of a local investment opportunity. This investment is significant.”
According to Battison, the same material will continue to be mined at the site and the mine’s footprint will remain unchanged; however, the material will be mined more quickly in order to take advantage of strong copper prices.
The heightened activity does reduce the mine’s lifespan by eight years to 2027, but Battison says the company expects to lengthen that by converting mineral resources into mineral reserves.
“Reserve calculations are the highest level of calculation,” explains Battison. “But we have lots of resources at Gibraltar, which means there’s a lot of rock there with minerals in it but we don’t know how economic that is. We can estimate and we can extrapolate and that’s what a resource is. (Turning resources into reserves) … will increase the mine life and it will go back, we expect, to be around where it is now (2035).”
Currently Gibraltar employees 474 people. Impressive, says Battison, considering when Taseko started mining the property in 2004 it had 12 employees and the mine life was 40 months.
“Now look at what’s going on with the mine life stretching out to 2035 and not 12 employees but 474 employees and 140 long-term employees on the way. It’s amazing.
“I think it’s something that people can be proud of especially the people who work at Gibraltar,” he says.
Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook applauded the announcement.
“Gibraltar has been an important economic driver and employer since it was re-opened in 2004, and now it will invest even more and create more jobs in the area — this is a positive development that we need to celebrate,” Cook said in a press release.
