| Location | 7 km east of Chibougamau, QC |
| Ownership | 100% interest |
| History | Past producing underground mine: 1.5 M oz gold & 0.5 B lbs copper from 1959-2008 |
| Commodities | Copper and Gold |
| Current Status | Exploration |
| Mineral Resources | Historical (2007) |
The Copper Rand mine is the largest past producing mine in the Lac Doré (Chibougamau) mining camp. It operated from 1959 to 2008 and extracted 16,445,493 tonnes at an average grade of 1.8% Cu and 2.8 g/t Au.
HISTORY
Production commenced in 1959 under Patino Mining and in 1981, Northgate Exploration Ltd. acquired the Copper Rand and Portage mines, as well as other neighbouring mines and properties. In 1987, Westminer Canada (a subsidiary of Australia’s Western Mining) acquired the mines from Northgate and operated them until November 1992 when the mines were placed on care and maintenance. In February 1993, MSV Resources acquired the Copper Rand and Portage mines from Westminer. MSV reopened the Copper Rand mine in 1993 and operated it until October 1997. MSV merged with Campbell Resources Inc. in 2001.
Starting in 2001, the development work focussed on accessing the ore body (CR5000) between levels 4,000 and 5,000 feet (1,219 and 1,524 meters). The development work included the deepening of the No. 4 shaft to a depth of 4,326 feet (1,442 meters) with all its infrastructure: a 3,800 ft. decline ramp with its conveyor, a 900 ft. raise of ventilation connected to the upper level, and all the required development to access the ore between levels 4,790 and 4,510 feet. With the Company incurring numerous delays and substantial additional costs, the work was only completed in early 2004 and the mine never achieved its nameplate capacity.
At the time of the 2008 financial crisis, Copper Rand was the only mine feeding the mill and with the decline in copper prices, Campbell discontinued mining operations at the end of 2008.
HISTORICAL MINING RESOURCES
The historical mineral resources are in two areas: the CR5000 zone and the Hanging Wall zone. The CR5000 zone is still open at depth and along strike, however, due to its depth, there are no immediate plans for additional exploration.
| Category | Tonnage | Grade | Contained | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 000 tonnes | Cu (%) | Au (g/t) | M lbs Cu | 000 oz Au | |
| Proven | 209 | 1.92 | 2.40 | 8.8 | 16 |
| Probable | 762 | 1.55 | 3.19 | 26.9 | 78 |
| Total P+P | 971 | 1.67 | 2.91 | 35.6 | 94 |
| Measured | 94 | 1.23 | 2.09 | 2.6 | 6 |
| Indicated | 536 | 1.39 | 2.98 | 16.4 | 51 |
| Total M+I | 630 | 1.37 | 2.84 | 18.9 | 58 |
| Inferred | 416 | 1.89 | 2.78 | 17.3 | 37 |
Note 1: The Copper Rand mine closed in December 2008. The Proven reserves reported in the table were adjusted from the published mineral reserves at year-end 2007 by subtracting the total mined tonnes in 2008 (data sourced from Campbell’s Q3 MD&A 2008 and internal reports for Q4 2008). The ore mined in Q4 2008 was selectively high-grade and most likely brought down the remaining grade of the Proven category; accurate calculations of the copper grade of the remaining ore in the Proven category is not possible as no reconciliation was done at year-end 2008. Other categories remain unchanged. The data has been converted from short tons to tonnes (x 0.907) and from oz/short ton to g/t (x 34.28).
Note 2: This estimate is considered to be historical in nature and should not be relied upon. A Qualified Person has not completed sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve.
GEOLOGY
The Copper Rand mine is part of the Lac Doré complex, a stratified complex of intrusive origins, composed principally of anorthosites and gabbros. Sub-vertical to steeply dipping extensional shears forming perpendicular to and from the movement along the large Lac Dore fault host the mineralization. Copper Rand is hosted in the same style mineralized system as Cedar Bay but lies on the southeastern side of the northeast trending Lac Doré fault. The depth potential of these structures is several kilometres vertically. In the mineralized zones, the meta-anorthosites are generally altered to sericite-chlorite schists containing sulfide lenses (generally 10 to 30%), composed principally of pyrite and chalcopyrite with occasional pyrrhotite and small quantities of sphalerite and galena.
