General Manager Of Kemess Says Gold and Copper Prices Will Stay High

By 250 News

The General Manager of the Kemess Mine, North of Mackenzie says his company will be out of ore by September or October of 2010. Maurice Ethier says "We have two and half years to get it togther or we stand to lose the 375 workers who are employed at the mine."

Losing the workers would be  a major set back says Ethier "We could keep perhaps 60 or 70 workers going in the reclamation process, but we then would still need to let 300 workers go. How do you get these kind of workers back in today’s market, I can safely tell you, that would be a very tough job."

Ethier says Kemess has been trying to get through the hoops for the new project which will cover an area about 1 kilometer by two kilometers , "We are not talking about a large piece of ground here" he said. According to Ethier, the new mine would extend the life of the present site by about 11 years.

At present, the company trucks its ore concentrate to Mackenzie where it is shipped by rail to Quebec for final smelting.

The company now employs just over 370  people with the workers coming from all over BC "We have workers from Fernie, Kamloops, Kelowna, Williams Lake, and the Bulkley Valley." These workers he said earn about $100,000 dollars a year and generally work two weeks in and then have two weeks out.

Ethier says  the  markets remain strong "Our prediction is that the price of Gold and Copper will remain high over the next few years and we see the new Kemess project as a great opportunity to develop industry in this province."

The company has just come through the Environmental  Review process and iis waiting  for  a decision .

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