For the first time in nearly two years, miners at the Troy Mine are actually pulling copper and silver ore from the tunnels in Lincoln County.
Earlier this week, the first ore since 2012 was processed in the underground crusher at the Lincoln County mine and President and CEO John Shanahan said milling operations would begin next month.
Shanahan said the mine would resume full production by the middle of 2015.
“We remain very pleased with all aspects of our development efforts at Troy,” he said. “Our crews are to be congratulated for maintaining the highest levels of workplace safety while completing the first phase of development at Troy on schedule and within budget.”
In late 2012, a series of underground rockslides closed the Troy Mine and since then the Revett Mining Company has been busy building new tunnels to underground areas called the I and C Beds. Earlier this fall, miners found mineralized ore in the North C Bed and began trucking it underground to the crusher on Sept. 30. From there, the crusher moves the ore more than a mile to the surface where it is milled and processed into concentrate.
Shanahan said the company would crush and store about 25,000 tons of ore before it will begin milling operations next month. At that point, it will be able to start shipping concentrate again.
About 65 people are currently working underground right now and Shanahan expects there to be about 100 people back on the job by the end of the year. When the mine resumes full production next year it will employ about 175 people.
There are currently four crews working on two shifts, seven days a week. While one crew works on mining and crushing ore, another crew is continuing to focus on development work, Shanahan said.
Workers have constructed a 7,000-foot tunnel toward the I Bed and when it’s finished next year it will be about 13,400-feet long.
Besides the announcement that mining had recommenced at the Troy Mine, Shanahan was also touting the mine’s spotless safety record. On Sept. 24, the mine completed two years without a lost time accident or reportable injury. The National Mining Association recently recognized Revett with its 2013 Sentinels of Safety Award in the Large Underground Metal Mine Group category.
“(Even though the mine wasn’t producing) people were still underground and still working,” Shanahan said. “Development work can sometimes be more dangerous than mining and so the fact that we were able to do it safely and win awards for it, well that’s the icing on the cake.”
Shanahan said that the Troy Mine currently has a 12-year lifespan but that exploration could extend that into the future. He also said Revett is focused on permitting and developing the Rock Creek Mine further south in Sanders County; the environmental impact statement for the Rock Creek Mine could be available for public comment sometime in 2015.
The Troy Mine first opened in 1981 and ran until 1993 when it was closed. Revett reopened the mine in 2005.