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The Times Review has toured the MAX Mine site. The mine adits are at the top right, near the brown staff buildings. The grey building at the centre left is the crushing complex, and the building at the bottom is the processing mill. The mine is located on a mountainside just above Trout Lake, B.C. Discovery Ventures image
New life for Trout Lake’s MAX Mine? Aaron Orlando
editor@revelstoketimesreview.com
The MAX Molybdenum Mine, located on a mountainside just above Trout Lake, B.C., may see new life after a flurry of activity on the finance markets in the past two weeks. In September, 2010, the molybdenum mine suffered a serious underground collapse, bringing a halt to mining and milling operations at the on-site refining mill. The company conducted remediation work and did resume milling and some mining, but a combination of weaker molybdenum prices and geotechnical challenges underground eventually shuttered the mill. On Nov. 4, 2013, Max Mine’s parent company Roca Mines Inc. announced it had received notice from the TSX Ventures Exchange that it was about to be de-listed from the Toronto-based stock exchange. This set off a succession of wheeling and dealing in the next few days.
By Nov. 6., Vancouver-based Discovery Ventures Inc. announced it had entered into an agreement with Roca to acquire the MAX Mine. The deal will see Discovery Ventures pay $5.675 million in cash and stocks to Roca for the 59 mineral claims that make up the 5,489-hectare MAX project. The deal is not complete; the buyers are still seeking just under $1 million in funding to complete the transaction. On Nov. 7, Discovery Ventures announced it had received conditional approval of the transaction from the TSX Venture Exchange. Discovery Ventures is led by Akash Patel. The Vancouver-based president and CEO is an accountant who specializes in corporate taxation. “We are very excited about the proposed acquisition of the MAX Mine and mill complex and the strategic synergies that may result by combining Discovery’s existing Willa Project with the Max Mine processing facility.” The 5,238-hectare Willa Project is
key to the deal. It is a gold, copper and silver deposit located eight kilometres south of Silverton, B.C. on Red Mountain. The mineral deposit has been explored since the 1890s, when the area was known as the ‘Silvery Slocan.’ Since the 1960s, a long list of mining companies have conducted exploration work at the Willa Project. According to Discovery Ventures, a 2005 exploration showed that metal prices wouldn’t provide adequate returns to justify proceeding. The plan now is to use the MAX Mine mill to process minerals from the Willa Project. The mines are 135 kilometres apart by road. In an interview with the Times Review, Patel said the Willa site was not financially viable partly because it lacked a mill. “It’s like having a sawmill without trees,” he said. The idea is to truck about 500 tonnes of ore per day – to start –
MAX Mine, page 2
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Weds., November 20, 2013 www.revelstoketimesreview.com Vol. 116, No. 47
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Around town – 9
CSRD votes to support adventure park ALC application
This image shows the site plan for the proposed adventure park as it relates to the Agricultural Land Reserve. CSRD image Alex Cooper
reporter@revelstoketimesreview.com
The board of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District voted to recommend approval of two applications to the Agricultural Land Commission relating to the Revelstoke Adventure Park and an adjacent subdivision. The Illecillewaet Development company submitted two different applications to the Agricultural Land Commission relating to their property in the Greeley area. The first is to allow non-farm use on a portion of private land that will be part of the adventure park. The other is for a 21-property sub-division along the Illecillewaet River. Last Thursday both applications were presented to the CSRD for referral and in both cases, the board voted to recommend approval to the ALC, which has the final say on both applications. In doing so, they voted contrary to staff reports that recommended refusal for both applications. For the first application, a report
prepared for the proponents by agrologist Bob Holtby says the land is “obviously arable” but the wetness of the field limits it to permanent pasture or forage harvesting. Holtby’s report concludes, “It is my opinion that the proposal will have little, if any, impacts on the agricultural capability of the land.” A CSRD staff report counters some of the claims in Holtby’s report. It says Holtby’s report doesn’t properly consider the volume of use that would be required to make the adventure park viable. It questions the assessment that the adventure park wouldn’t impact future agricultural use of the land and says that the volume of use needed for it to be successful is “not especially compatible with agricultural use.” Hotby’s report on the sub-division says the land is arable and the best use would be for forage crops. Dividing the land into 21 one-hectare lots would allow for hobby farm development similar to homes nearby.
Adventure park, page 4
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