The territory’s Minto Mine has been sold for $20 million to Pembridge Resources out of London, England.

Pembridge and Capstone Mining closed the deal Monday.

Pembridge announced Tuesday it’s planning to have the copper mine back in commercial production by the end of this year.

Pembridge is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange. It entered into a purchase agreement with Capstone last year to buy the Minto Mine for $37.5 million, but was unable to raise the financing in what was described as tight market conditions.

Production at the mine ceased late last year. Capstone has been keeping Minto in a state of care and maintenance over the last six months with a skeleton crew of 12 to 13 employees.

Capstone vice-president Paul Jones explained Tuesday they kept the property in as good as shape as possible so it could be fired back up easily.

The company, for instance, kept the underground workings dry, because it was felt if they were allowed to fill with water, it could spell the end of the mine’s marketability, he said.

Jones said the substantial decrease in the purchase price is a reflection of the continuing tough market conditions and Capstone’s desire to sell the asset.

Capstone was spending about $500,000 a month to keep it in a care and maintenance mode, he said.

“We signed the deal and it closed,” Jones said. “So Pembridge is the owner of Minto as of today.”

Pembridge CEO David Linsley told the Star Tuesday from London it took the company longer than expected to realize its goal of purchasing the mine because of market conditions and so forth, but it’s a done deal.

“We’ve always been very keen to acquire it; it just took time,” he said.

The company, he insisted, is planning to have the Minto Mine back in production by the last quarter of this year.

Linsley said he didn’t want to speak specifically about employment numbers or opportunities other than to say they will be significant.

“It is going to be significant employment, but it will take time to get it to that point because we want to get it right; we want to be sustainable,” he said.

Linsley said Pembridge only plans to mine underground, with no intention of any open-pit mining.

The underground ore is a much higher grade that results in the mill producing higher returns and higher grades, he explained.

With what Pembridge knows of the exploration work that’s been completed on the property, Linsley said, they’ll be there for long time.

Pembridge president Peter Bojtos was scheduled to arrive Wednesday at the mine site, he pointed out.

In addition to taking over the assets, Pembridge also assumes responsibility for reclamation and posting the reclamation bond.

Under the arrangement, the three purchase payments – $5 million, $5 million and $10 million – are tied to success in production and the price of copper.

The first payment is due within 60 days of Pembridge achieving commercial production, for instance.

The Minto Mine began production in 2007 and employed approximately 300 people at its peak, including contract employees like heavy equipment operators working for Pelly Construction out of Whitehorse.

In an interview last year, Linsley said his company was looking to buy an operating mine or a mine nearly in production that was not a core asset of the seller. It wanted a mine in a safe jurisdiction.

Minto, Linsley said back then, was everything Pembridge was looking for.

And he insisted back then that Pembridge was not looking to buy Minto to shut it down, but rather to continue on with what they thought was a property with great potential.

While Pembridge was unable to raise the $37.5 million, it announced in October 2018 it was still pursuing the purchase.

In its press release Tuesday, Pembridge indicated the flexible schedule of payments tied to production was central to the deal’s success.

It also noted it was also able to raise $10 million to fund the recommencement of operations through a partnership agreement with two firms out of New York.

Linsley said Tuesday that $10 million is going directly to cover the cost of getting the mine back into production.