Magna Mining can walk into the PDAC Mining conference in Toronto this week with a bit of a swagger.
The Sudbury base metal company said it's finalized its acquisition of the McCreedy West copper mine from Polish miner KGHM International, just in time for the kickoff of the industry’s biggest meet-and-greet.
Last September, the homegrown mine developer pulled off a blockbuster deal to pick up the mine and a raft of past producing Sudbury mines and exploration properties in the basin.
Those assets included the past-producing Levack mine, Podolsky mine and Kirkwood mine, along with some lesser known properties in the Falconbridge Footwall, Northwest Foy, North Range and Rand exploration assets.
In a statement, Magna CEO Jason Jessup called this time a transformative event for the company.
“Magna now owns and operates a producing copper mine and four additional permitted, past-producing copper, nickel, and precious metal projects in the Sudbury region, along with a portfolio of exceptional exploration properties.”
The company said exploration has already started at two of these new assets. At McCreedy West, drills began turning underground last year to explore areas adjacent to previous mining activity. Some high-grade drill hits with copper, nickel and platinum group metal values have been returned.
At Levack, a surface drill rig was moved into position March 1 to support a mine restart plan. KGHM ran Levack until 2019 when it was placed in mothballs.
Magna bills itself as a Sudbury-focussed company with its stable of copper, nickel and platinum group metal assets in the area. Its strategy is to acquire previously mined assets and areas with untapped mineral upside and put them into production.
The company has been a fast mover in the Sudbury basin since acquiring the former Crean Hill from Vale in 2022 with plans to put it into production this year.
Their expediency is due to the fact that Magna's management team has familiarity with the ground acquired and the untapped mineral resources within.
Magna added more ground in the basin in November, acquiring seven more base metal properties from junior miner NorthX Nickel (formerly known as Archer Exploration). That deal is expected to close sometime this month.
Jessup, whose company was recently ranked among the TSX Venture top 50 performing companies, said “we believe we are positioned to grow substantially over the coming years.“
