Privately-owned Eagle Industrial Minerals Corp. gets the go-ahead from the Yukon Water Board to mine magnetite from the old Whitehorse Copper mine tailings.
The Yukon Water Board issued an industrial water licence to Eagle this week. The contaminated site is located within the City of Whitehorse. The Whitehorse Copper mine operated from 1967-1982. Unfortunately the site is a wasteland—not much plant life can grow on the contaminated soil.
Eagle plans to process 10 million tonnes of tailings on site to garner the 20% magnetite content that are contained in the tailings. Eagle plans to start work later in the summer of 2013. The project currently expects to begin producing magnetite in 2Q 2013. The magnetite will be shipped as iron ore to Far East steel makers through the existing ore terminal in Skagway, Alaska.
Eagle Industrial Minerals Corporation are proposing to process 12,000 tonnes per day, for 6 to 7 months during the snow free season, producing 250 to 350 thousand tonnes per year of magnetite over a duration of 6 to 7 years and employing up to 20 people seasonally. The project will also involve reclamation of the site for possible future industrial development.
Nice decision by the Water Board. Society benefits by having the private sector create jobs and having a toxic legacy reclaimed at the same time.