http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/
Rambler Metals and Mining says a $2-million loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency announced last week will help secure the long-term future of its copper mine on the Baie Verte Peninsula.
Rambler chief executive officer Norman Williams said the repayable loan is the last piece in a financial package that will extend the life of the mine to more than 20 years and eventually secure more than 200 direct jobs from the gold and copper mine’s operations. “It’s about setting up those 200 jobs for the long-term prosperity up on the peninsula,” CEO Norman Williams told the Central Morning Show Monday.
“[It’s] about 20 years of mining. When you have employment to that level, and that magnitude, hopefully we’re going to see lots of people come and go and retire and stay on the Baie Verte Peninsula.”
Rambler said the federal interest-free loan is unsecured and repayable over eight years with the first repayment scheduled for May 2018. “It will be repaid. We have eight years to do that, but certainly no concerns in repaying this type of a loan.”
Money needed for mine expansion
The money will be used to increase capacity at the Nugget Pond copper concentrator to at least 1,250 tonnes per day, up from 650 tonnes when the operation began. That increased capacity is needed after an expansion in an area at the mine site known as the lower footwall zone.
It’s that expansion underground that has increased the life of the mine that originally appeared set to run out of raw copper by 2016. In all, the company expects to have invested $2 million into the operation by July of 2017. And it doesn’t stop there.
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