Prince George, B.C.- There is no crystal ball that will  predict when commodity prices may improve,  but Mount Milligan mine is doing well.

( at right, Joanna Miller – photo 250News)

That’s  the message delivered   over the lunch hour by Joanna Miller,  Manager of Community Affairs and Corporate Affairs   for  the mine that is located northwest of Prince George. “Hopefully we will see copper come up,  Gold has been doing ok, so that  helps us  definitely that we have both the gold and copper, but  we would like to see stronger copper.”

In a  presentation  made possible  through the Prince George Chamber of Commerce,  Miller  detailed Mt. Milligan’s  performance  since the open pit  mine started full operations two years ago.  The mine ended  2015 with $177 million dollars.

A minor boost in the  price of gold and that lower dollar have been positives for the mine says Miller “Both are helping us,  commodity  prices going up definitely helps us more,  and we’re able to, with the two commodities,   interchange the mine plan slightly,  chase gold, chase copper,  depending on  what’s  doing more favourably, so that’s definitely  advantageous for us.”

Mt. Milligan is developing a permanent  secondary crushing  system on site says  Miller  “We just  had the capital  expenditure approved to build a permanent  structure so it will be operated by Milligan instead of  outsourcing.”

The mine is  working towards  producing  55 -65 million pounds of copper this year,  and  between 240 thousand and 270 thousand ounces of gold.

With 456 employees ( as of the end of April) Miller says two thirds of all  workers at the mine are  considered ‘local’  with  23% from Prince George,  14% from Fort St. James, 16% from Mackenzie, 8% from Fraser Lake, and 5% from Vanderhoof.   The mine has  32 apprentices  on  site.   She says the downturn in the oil patch has  helped in finding the necessary skilled labour needed at the mine,  “Tradespeople we are  always looking for,  and we try to  focus regionally.”

She says it’s too early to say if  those who have been displaced by the Fort McMurray  fires will be looking for work elsewhere “I think we have seen movement of people back into this region from Alberta,  we’ll probably   continue to see that,  but mostly right now  the people  we are bringing on are summer students, we just have a couple of  trades positions.   All of our job postings  are online so people can apply from wherever they are,  it’s just our hope that we’re able to find  qualified applicants within the region.”