North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Western Copper Corp. won the coveted Robert E. Leckie Award for 2009 for outstanding reclamation of old abandoned workings on the Casino Property in west-central Yukon Territory.

But the junior exploration company also went beyond the expected and developed a system for ongoing recycling and reclamation that could one day render the need for remedial cleanups at mine properties relics of the past.

The Government of Yukon presented the Leckie Award to Western Copper Nov. 24, at the Yukon Geoscience Forum, in recognition of the junior's reclamation efforts and its innovations at Casino.

"While completing the cleanup activities, we were committed to go beyond our ordinary obligations and to operate in a way that is consistent with our sustainable development goals," said Western Copper President and CEO Dale Corman. "We are focused on developing our projects in a manner that respects and protects the environment and enhances benefits to nearby communities."

The Casino property is one of the world's largest copper, gold and molybdenum deposits and is believed to be amenable to open-pit mining. Located 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, northwest of Whitehorse, it has a NI 43-101-compliant reserves estimate of 8 million ounces of gold, 4.4 billion pounds of copper, and 475 million pounds of molybdenum, contained in about 1 billion metric tons of ore.

Western Copper completed a positive pre-feasibility study on the Casino Project in June 2008 and is currently focusing on exploration with the goal of increasing the size of the resource.

Western Copper is also advancing baseline environmental and socioeconomic studies in preparation for submission to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, the first step in the permitting process for a mine project at Casino.

Removing a legacy of litter

Various mining companies explored the Casino property intermittently dating back to the 1960s. And they left behind everything from trash to buildings. One explorer established a fairly large, well-constructed camp on the property in the 1980s, but the passage of time and incursions by wildlife such as bears took a huge toll on the structures.

During the reclamation work, all of the buildings, structures, equipment, material, and debris left behind by others were removed from the property or recycled for use in the new camp. The old camp site also was re-contoured and re-seeded to establish natural vegetation.

Other areas of the property where debris had been allowed to accumulate over many years of exploration by previous companies were similarly cleared and regraded.

"Western Copper started work on its Casino Project in 2008, and a camp needed to be established in another location. There were a lot of leftover materials around, and it was not looking great," recalled Claire Derome, vice president of government relations for Western Copper.

Doing it the right way

The junior decided to establish its camp closer to a small airstrip on the property, which it also rehabilitated. It also set up the camp at a higher elevation so it would have more exposure to sunlight.

Derome told Mining News Dec. 10 that the old camp was removed entirely, but a few of its buildings were converted into a core shack and mill facility for the new camp.

"We're recycling everything at the camp now," she said. "We're composting and burning things that will burn, such as paper. We don't have a dump at all. We have full water treatment, so our activities make no impact on the environment."

The camp's composted material is routinely flown to a composting facility in Whitehorse.

"We never have a plane go back to Whitehorse empty," she said. "And with no waste and no landfill, it makes it much easier to manage the bears."

Because the Casino property attracted a lot of placer mining, a lot of old machinery also ended up collecting on the property, Derome said.

Though the machinery has been cleaned of oil and other fluids, "we're still wondering what we're going to do with it," she added.

Derome credits Scott Casselman, Western Copper's property manager at Casino, with taking the lead in the reclamation effort.

"Scott really brought the project to the next level by making sure things were done the right way," she said.