New Copper Mine in Manitoba Breaks Ground

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VMS Ventures Inc. and Hudbay Break Ground at New Copper Mine in Manitoba

VMS Ventures Inc. and its joint venture partner, Hudbay Minerals Inc. hosted a ground-breaking ceremony at the Reed Lake property in Flin Flon, Manitoba, signaling their commitment to the new copper mine.  

Dave Chomiak, Minister of Innovation, Energy and Mines, David Garofalo, President and CEO of Hudbay, and Rick Mark, CEO of VMS Ventures attended and spoke at the ceremony. 

“We are delighted to be a part of today’s Reed Copper Mine opening ceremony. Reed has advanced towards production very quickly. We made the discovery in 2007 and signed a Joint Venture with Hudbay on July 5, 2010,”said Rick Mark, VMS’ chief executive officer and chairman. “HudBay is on schedule and on budget and VMS is pleased to be working with such an experienced partner.”

Mining at the Reed copper project is expected to begin by Q4 2013, and is anticipated to ramp up to full production of approximately 1,300 tonnes per day by Q1 2014. 

Mining IQ spoke with Rick personally and asked for his comments on the new copper mine. After a site tour, Rick commented that‘I am extremely proud and impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the team.” He believes that relationship management, communication and transparency are critical to the success of every mining operation. 

The price of copper will be instrumental in determining the mine’s future trajectory. Rick added, "The surface drilling has given us confidence we have an economic deposit for mining, but it is common that additional underground drilling, which takes place once the initial mine development is completed, may very well add to the size of our high grade deposit, potentially extending its life and profitability."

With this in mind, VMS and its partner Hudbay Minerals have set their sights set on new targets in the area around the mine and below it. Reed itself could be bigger and the geology of the area is such that multiple deposits are typically formed in the underlying volcanic rocks where exploration is an ongoing process. 

John Roozendaal, founding director of VMS Ventures also commented,”The Reed Copper discovery shows what modern exploration techniques and a strong technical team can do, even in areas thought to have been well explored. In this case the deposit was complete "blind" with no surface expression whatsoever, buried under 20 meters of younger barren rocks, which overlie it. It was detected using a modern geophysical survey employed over an area which our geological team had identified as highly prospective, in spite of the lack of surface rock exposure. The fact it was located only 100m from a paved highway was icing on the cake."

VMS Ventures announced a high-grade copper discovery at Reed grading 10.50 m of 11.19% copper within 43.05 m of 4.38% copper on October 4, 2007. Click here to read the press release.

Mining IQ thanks Rick and VMS Ventures for their comments and look forward to hearing about the development and success of this new copper mining operation. For previous interviews with VMS Ventures click here

About VMS Ventures Inc:

VMS Ventures Inc. is focused primarily on acquiring, exploring and developing copper-zinc-gold-silver massive sulphide deposits in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake VMS Belt of Manitoba. The Company’s VMS project property portfolio consists of the Reed Copper Project, Reed East/West Project, McClarty Lake Project, Sails Lake Project, Puella Bay Project and Morton Lake Project. Outside of the Snow Lake camp, the Company holds massive sulphide prospective properties near the past producing Fox Lake and Ruttan copper-zinc mines, near the communities of Lynn Lake and Leaf Rapids in northern Manitoba. These properties are located in the mining friendly province of Manitoba, Canada. The Company also has optioned three properties in the Sudbury mining camp. They are Terra Incognita, Golden Pine and Black Creek.

VMS Ventures owns approximately 26M shares of North American Nickel Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NAN). For more information on North American Nickel Inc., please visit www.northamericannickel.com.

About Hudbay Minerals:

Hudbay (TSX, NYSE: HBM) is a Canadian integrated mining company with assets in North and South America principally focused on the discovery, production and marketing of base and precious metals. Hudbay's objective is to maximize shareholder value through efficient operations, organic growth and accretive acquisitions, while maintaining its financial strength. A member of the S&P/TSX Composite Index and the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index, Hudbay is committed to high standards of corporate governance and sustainability. Further information about Hudbay can be found on www.hudbayminerals.com.