Yellowhead Mining Inc. announced Aug. 14 that it has updated the feasibility study for its Harper Creek copper-gold-silver project.
The proposed open pit mine would be located about 10 km southwest of Vavenby.
"Yellowhead has spent the last year working on a series of design improvements to both optimize the mine site footprint and general arrangement of Harper Creek, but more importantly, to both reduce and further mitigate the potential environmental impacts resulting from the development of Harper Creek,” said Frank Wheatley, CEO of Yellowhead. “Consideration of the implications of design alternatives from an environmental management perspective, was an integral part of this process.”
Highlights of the feasibility plan include a 28-year lifespan for the mine and a $1 billion initial capital cost.
Wheatley said that the completion of the updated feasibility study is a critical milestone in the preparation of Yellowhead's application for an environmental assessment certificate for the project.
The company plans to submit a new application to the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2014.
In the spring of 2013 the provincial EAO concluded that Yellowhead's application for an Environmental Assessment Certificate for Harper Creek did not satisfy the application information requirements. The EAO decided not to accept the application for review at that time.