The Mount Milligan Project is still on target, despite problems for Thompson Creek.
According to Jocelyn Fraser, director of public affairs in Canada for the mine, Mount Milligan is still aiming to open as planned.
“We’re on schedule, so that means commissioning in third quarter of 2013,” said Fraser.
She spoke of the advancements the site is making within a short period between her visits, and mentioned flotation cells being placed in the plant and steel structures being in place for some of the facilities and the framing is now going in for the office administration building and plant laboratory as well.
“Even in a week you can see things really moving along,” she said.
Changes to the environmental approval certificate are still being reviewed, but she said they are hopeful they might get a response by the end of August or early fall.
“We’ve been working with the Environmental Assessment Office … and we’re just working through the procedural parts,” she said.
Positions which have been vacated in Fort St. James may remain vacant for the time being, as Christy Smith, in charge of community relations for Fort St. James, has since left to work for the Prosperity Project out of Williams Lake.
“When Christy started with us, she was the only person … since then now we’ve got the fully staffed office and we’ve got quite a few people based in the community, so every new employee who comes on community relations becomes a bit of their job as they get out and get established in the community,” said Fraser. “So we’re just going to take a close look at what our needs are given that we’re at a different stage in the project and we do have quite few people living in the community.”
The local office is supposed to stay open, but has been closed on and off temporarily as Brenda Hewett who normally works from the front desk at the local office, has been working on site.
A new hire is expected to start soon to take over at the local office, staffing the front desk once again.
The office is used by a number of different people at different times, some of whom work on site at different times as well.
Fraser said there are now 71 people working at the site for Thompson Creek or contractors on site who declare Fort St. James as their base.
Mount Milligan has also opened an office in Mackenzie, and a report on HQPrinceGeorge.com gave an estimate of 10 people from Mackenzie working at the mine.
There are approximately 900 personnel working for the mine, directly or for contractors.
Problems with Thompson Creek mines in Idaho and their Endako mine near Fraser Lake, while impacting company share prices, Fraser said should not impact Mount Milligan at this point.
“It doesn’t have an impact really for Mount Milligan,” she said. “Obviously we want to run a project that’s cost-conscious … but we’re continuing to hire.”
She said there are about 250 operational positions still to fill, but about 100 personnel for the operational phase have already been hired.
“The HR team is working really aggressively to try and recruit those people,” said Fraser.
The permanent operations work force is expected to number about 350.
The company was also announcing a milestone in their ongoing work on site.
They just passed two million hours without a lost time incident.
“We’re really proud of the team, if you think about all of the different contractors who are involved and the work site being both as large and as complex as it is,” said Fraser. “I think it just shows a real commitment on the part of each and every person working up there to safety.”
“That’s a really significant milestone from our perspective.”