In an operational update, Nevada Copper said that its Pumpkin Hollow underground copper mine faced several challenges, including a build-up of water underground, that impacted its progress in the fourth quarter.
“Since restarting mining and milling operations, we’ve made progress in a number of areas, including completion of life of mine projects such as the Geho dewatering system and phase two of the underground crushing and ore handling system, development of significant stope inventory underground and realignment of the site operations team,” said President and CEO Randy Buffington.
“However, several unforeseen setbacks impacted our progress on meeting operational targets. We took critical steps and refocused resources to mitigate and address these issues. While I am disappointed that these challenges have negatively impacted our ability to meet hoisting and processingPumpkin-Hollow targets, we continue to ramp-up toward steady state operations.”
The miner said that increased development activities prior to completing the Geho dewatering project was the source for the water build-up. All critical areas of the mine have been cleared. Remaining pockets of water are not expected to impact progress on stope mining or other development activities going forward.
The mill restarted in October and operated intermittently throughout the fourth quarter. While the milling and flotation circuits operated well, unanticipated bottlenecks were encountered in the thickener and tails filter presses that caused repeated mill shutdowns. Nevada Copper said that upgrades were made to the filter presses, thickener equipment, and operating protocols to fix the issue.
Source: Nevada Copper