Island Copper

$50 million, grassroots mine and copper/molybdenum ore concentrator, Canada’s second largest at the time. The 280 million-ton reserve of copper/molybdenum ore is processed at 33,000 tons-per-day, yielding 230,000 tons-per-year copper and 1,800 tons-per-year molybdenum concentrates. The total gravity submarine tailings disposal system is a unique departure in tailings handling, designed to comply with ecology-responsible regulations. Ore from the open-pit mine is loaded into 120-200 ton haul trucks by electric shovels, followed by gyratory crushing, screening, coarse and fine ore storage, autogenous grinding, cyclone separation, floation, thickening, disc filtering, drying, storage and ship loading plus other ancillary facilities including a 600-man construction camp.