Capstone Mining has decided not to go ahead with plans to dig the next open pit target at its Minto Mine, company vice-president Cindy Burnett confirmed this morning.

Burnett said the decision was made based on a financial analysis of the Ridgetop open pit proposal that was supported by in-fill drilling in the target area.

The work showed the project would be marginal in terms of a financial return for Capstone, she told the Star.

As a result, she said, Capstone will not be renewing its surface mining contract with Pelly Construction Ltd. of Whitehorse.

Some Pelly employees will remain at the mine fulfilling other duties requiring Pelly’s heavy equipment and operators.

The decision not to proceed with the last open pit in the mining plan for the Minto Mine does not affect the company’s plans to continue underground mining to the end up to 2022, she said.

Nor has the decision affected Pembridge Resources’ desire to purchase the Minto Mine from Capstone, Pembridge president Peter Bojtos confirmed in an interview Wednesday.

Burnett said she was not in a position to discuss how Pelly’s workforce would be affected in terms of numbers at the mine site.

Pelly Construction has been retained by Victoria Gold to prepare its open pit project at Dublin Gulch northeast of Mayo.

Victoria recently announced it had arranged $505 million in financing to bring its Eagle Gold Project into production by the end of next year. (See story, p. 3.)

Pelly vice-president Jennifer Byram said this morning the company has 76 employees working at the Minto Mine.

The intent is to move the employees who do not stay at Minto over to the Eagle Gold Project, she said.

Byram said she’s not yet sure how many will need to stay at Minto.

During the last shutdown of the open pit mining operation there, six Pelly employees stayed on, so she suspects 70 or so will be moving to Dublin Gulch and the Eagle project, she said.

“We hope to have a seamless transition to Victoria Gold and a handful of people staying at Minto to continue with surface support,” said Byram. “There will be bumps on the road, but I hope they will be few and far between.

“It will be another day at work for Pelly, at a different location with a different view.”

As of the end of 2017, there were 325 people employed by the Minto Mine, including contract workers like the Pelly Construction employees, Burnett said.

She pointed out that had Capstone decided to proceed with the Ridgetop target, the open pit work for Pelly would have been completed by the end of this year in any case.

The president of Pembridge said yesterday his company is still looking for the financing to purchase the Minto Mine.

The purchase proposal was announced by Capstone and Pembridge last month, and the deal is scheduled to close before the end of June.

Bojtos said Capstone shared everything with Pembridge regarding the financial analysis of the Ridgetop proposal and its decision not to proceed with the open pit.

“Capstone did a very good job of it and we accept their conclusions that at this point it is marginal,” he said.

Bojtos said the decision does not affect Pembridge’s plans to buy the Minto Mine.

Pembridge CEO David Linsley explained in an interview last month that Pembridge is planning to keep the Minto Mine going well beyond 2022.

And just as Linsley said a month ago, Bojtos repeated Wednesday: “We are not buying this mine to shut it down.”

Bojtos said while the Ridgetop open pit target is marginal now, that doesn’t mean it will be marginal forever.

If copper were to hit US $4 a pound, it might be worth looking at again, he said.

Copper was trading this morning at $3.03.