The Minto Mine has received the approvals needed to begin stripping and mining its next open pit target, mine general manager Ron Light confirmed Thursday.

“We are going to start stripping in January,” Light told the Star. “We have officially notified Pelly to start doing their recalls.”

Pelly Construction Ltd. laid off most of its heavy equipment operators earlier this fall after the previous open pit was mined out.

Milling operations have continued, and were expected to continue until the middle of next year using the stockpile of ore and ore from its underground operation.

Light said the stripping and mining of the next pit will take approximately six months, and will provide enough ore to extend the milling operations into next December.

“We will continue to look at options that might take us past that, but there is nothing firm,” he said.

“The underground mining goes until next August, but we are looking at some potential to extend that as well but there is nothing firm.”

Light said the stripping will begin on Jan. 4 or 5. It will take approximately two months of removing overburden and waste rock to reach the ore body, he said.

“This is the best Christmas present ever,” Pelly president Jennifer Byram said this morning. “Everybody is excited.

“We have made half the calls so far, and everybody is ready to go.”

Byram said they will be recalling 47 employees. Pelly has maintained a crew of seven at the mine site to provide heavy equipment requirements.

The amendments the Minto Mine needed to its quartz mining licence did not involve any changes to its environmental approvals nor its water licence.

Capstone Mining currently employs 135 directly, and is currently advertising for between six and eight positions, Light explained.

He said with the return of the full Pelly crew, the catering contractor will likely ramp back up to 26 employees from the 21 it has now.

Employment numbers for the underground mining contractor will remain unchanged at 38 to 40, he said.

Capstone announced at the beginning of the month it had made a decision to mine the next pit if government approvals were received no later than Dec. 16.

Company vice-president Cindy Burnett explained at the time the discussions leading up to the decision to go ahead with the next pit occurred largely before the recent spike in the price of copper.

Copper was selling for about $2.10 US a pound in mid-October to a recent high of about $2.65, though it was trading this morning at $2.55.

Most of the increase occurred after the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election. The prices of other base metals common to the Yukon, such as zinc and lead, have also seen a noticeable increase in prices since the election.

Meanwhile, milling operations at the Minto Mine were suspended for six days (Dec. 8-14) to replace a motor in the SAG mill – a grinding mill.

Light said the shutdown of the mill will not affect the Minto Mine’s budget for the year, as the mine is ahead of budget and will remain there come Dec. 31.