I missed the field trip to Asarco's Mission Mine [right, credit, Asarco] last Saturday but AZGS Phoenix chief Nyal Niemuth was there and provided some updates. Reserves of 334M tons grading 0.442% Cu and 0.009% Mo with a 1.47 strip ratio were reported, which will provide a 16 year mine life. A $22M capital improvement spending program is underway this year that will include 5 new trucks. Eventually all the haul truck fleet will be 320 ton Komatsu 930E models, that will require bigger loaders also. A $60M expenditure has been approved to expand the South mill and refurbish the Mo circuit. Mo production should restart in spring 2013 and produce 48K lb/month. A third of the trip was visiting reclamation of 5,124 acres of tailings and dumps in the northern part of the property into sustainable Sonoran desert vegetation.
I wonder if Asarco will get back in the bismuth business? It'd be interesting to see a metals analysis from the Mission mine. To my knowledge Asarco was the last domestic producer of bismuth.
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