Chris Lodder, President and CEO, addressed the Cariboo Regional District Board at their meeting in Quesnel on Friday.
He says they are doing a study right now to basically show the public what the economics of the project looks like while at the same time doing some preparation work…
“We’re in the permitting process to begin underground development on the main zone to allow us to underground and therefore start developing a pre-mine, and the other thing we’re doing is upgrading our existing mill facility at QR, which is closer here to Quesnel, and that’s where we’ll do the processing at the existing facility.”
Lodder says there will be some mining starting up next year on the existing permit that they inherited, but he says a new mine isn’t expected to be ready until 2022.
Here, he talks about employment at the site…
“The total company there is about 130 people, including five people in Toronto at our head office. Everybody else is here in the area working on site. So it’s not a lot of people, it’s a lot for Wells obviously, a small town of 250 people. For the next phase though, 2022, the construction phase could be anywhere from 300, maybe 400, but it will be short term, like a year sort of thing. The actual operation itself is probably around, with the turnarounds, is probably around 200 people.”