Six years after the first exploratory drill hole, Ursa Major Minerals has started regular ore shipments from its new nickel-copper open pit mine, north of Webbwood, to a Greater Sudbury smelter.
Blasting, mining and haulage operations are underway at the Shakespeare mine as the Toronto junior miner is making site preparations for commercial production by mid-summer.
With aims of becoming Northern Ontario's next mid-tier miner, president and CEO Richard Sutcliffe is looking forward to a productive year as he expands the resource base at Shakespeare with an eye on developing two other northeastern Ontario properties.
"I'm pleased with the progress we've made with ore being shipped, but it's been a long time coming."
Production will start out relatively small this year with 185,000 tonnes this year at a minimum rate of 500 tonnes per day.
Over the course of its current seven-year lifespan, the two - almost touching - open pits, Shakespeare East and West, are expected to produce 1 million pounds of nickel and 1.5 million pounds of copper.
Sutcliffe believes the area's geology is favourable for more discoveries. Drill results coming out of the east pit indicate there may be about 400,000 tonnes worth of ore potential. Shakespeare is now close to 12 million tonnes of reserves.
"We've still got several kilometres to explore on the Shakespeare trend."
When fully operational, Shakespeare, located 70 km west of Sudbury proper near Agnew Lake, will be a huge economic boost for the North Shore communities along Lake Huron following the shutdown of Domtar's Nairn Centre sawmill and continued uncertainty over the future of other forestry operations.
About 150 jobs will be created when a 4,500-tonnes-per-day concentrator mill is eventually built at Shakespeare.
The timelines to build the mill will depend on financing, but Sutcliffe anticipates construction to start early next year and carry out over 12 months.
In the meantime, all of the existing Shakespeare ore will be processed at Xstrata Nickel's Strathcona mill in Greater Sudbury.
After re-jigging their two-year-old feasibility study to factor in today's metal prices and increases in operating and capital costs, the project's price tag has increased from $118 million to $148 million.
"As a small company it's tough to raise that kind of capital. Our strategy has been to systematically eliminate risks from this project."
Sutcliffe felt his company has reduced investor risk by sending two test batches of 50,000 tonnes each to Sudbury to obtain a better read of their metallurgical grade results on a commercial scale.
The sale of those base metals through Xstrata delivered a $4 million boost to Ursa Major, some of which was poured back into Shakespeare.
On the Aboriginal consultation side, Sutcliffe says he's built a strong relationship with the Sagamok Anishnabek First Nation, which claims the traditional lands on the Spanish River watershed. The company is edging toward signing an impact-benefit agreement with the band and pledging job and contracting opportunities.
Already about half of the company's current 40-person workforce are Sagamok band members, working as rock truck drivers, excavator and backhoe operators or assisting in crushing, sampling and exploration activities.
Many are well-versed in the resource sector through work in the pulp and paper and construction industry. Like many laid-off forestry workers, their technical skills are easily transferable to an open-pit operation.
"They've been a very reliable and dedicated workforce for us," says Sutcliffe.
While Shakespeare is a priority, the company is also advancing its Shining Tree nickel deposit near Gogama toward development and is drilling on its Worthington Off-Set Dike near Vale Inco's Totten Mine extension in Greater Sudbury.
Following in the footsteps of other confident Sudbury junior miners like FNX and First Nickel in bringing deposits into production, Sutcliffe says Ursa Major Minerals is in it "for the long haul."
"There are few juniors around that have moved things through the steps (like) we have and I'm prepared to take that niche.
"There's a big opportunity for companies like ourselves to advance serious projects. We can get permitting done, negotiate with First Nations and do all the technical hurdles. We feel that's our business space and I'm prepared to grow it in that space."
