Page 32 By Gregory Reynolds W ith three producing mines a proj ect close to the advanced stage and a mining contractor company KGHM Polska Miedz SA has established a strong presence in Sudbury in less than two years Quadra FNX Mining Ltd on March 5 2012 became a whollyowned subsidiary of KGHM Polska and its name was offcially changed to KGHM International Ltd Throughout 2012 KGHM Interna tional focused on its operatin g assets and worked to advance its growth pipeline It is actively involve d in the construction of the Sierra Gorda proj ect in northern Chile and exploration at its V ictoria project in Sudbury Ef fective Sept 1 2012 KGHM Interna tional became the sole operat or of the Ajax development project near Kam loops British Columbia Its Sudbury producing mines were the Morrison Deposit the McCreedy W est and the Podolsky in 2012 Pro duction at Podolsky ceased at the end of March 2013 with the completion of mini ng of the economic resource The mine is now under care and main tenance The Morrison is part of the original Levack copper nickel mine discov ered in 1887 with frst production in 1915 After 100 years of operation the mine was closed in 1997 and put under care and maintenance KGHM International acquired the Levack property in March 2002 and com mercial production began in January 2007 Continuing exploration work on the Levack property resulted in the dis covery of the Morrison Deposit in February 2005 Nickel mining in the old Levack mine workings was halted in late 2009 while mining of the high grade Morrison Deposit continues Access and mining operation s on the Morrison Deposit are now carried out from the adjoining Craig Mine un der a cooperat ion agreement with its owner Xstrata Nickel The McCreedy W est Mine was frst developed by Inco in 1970 and oper ated until 1998 when it was closed KGHM International began work on McCreedy W est in 2002 Exploration ef forts on the property resulted in the discovery of the contact nickel Inter Main Deposit in 2002 which has been in production since 2003 In 2005 the Sudbury Mining Camp s frst lowsulphide copper nickelplat inum group deposit with standalone infrastructure was brought into pro duction Contact nickel production was suspended at the end of 2008 due to low commodity prices while copper production continued through 201 1 when production was halted due to low ore grade Contact nicke l production restarted in July 201 1 in an arrangement with Xstrata Nickel which processes the ore at its Strathcona mill Production of contact nickel ore is currently on going The V ictoria Project is a Ni Cu Pt Pd Au project in the engineering and permitting stage In 2002 KGHM International ac quired the mineral rights to the V ic toria property and initiated an explo ration program Environmental and engineering work and consultation with First Nation communities have progressed and project permitting is under way When all regulatory requirements are met the project will enter the Advanced Exploration stage which entails development of surface and under ground infrastructure to per mit detailed under ground drilling for a feasibilit y study The results of the feasibility study will determine whether the V ictoria project is devel oped into a producing mine hopefully by 2017 DMC Mining Services is a mining contractor originally formed in 1980 under the name of Dynatec Mining Limited T oday the 100 owned subsidiary of KGHM International primarily operates in Canada and the United States and has a number of lar ge assignments that utilize the company s full suite of mining ser vices and solutions including shaft sinking mine construction lateral and raise development Employing over 600 professionals DMC and its extensive mining capa bilities have been successfully applied to lar gescale production of gold cop per nickel zinc and other base and precious metals For over 30 years the company has KGHM has high hopes V ictoria will be its next Sudbury operation Contd on pg 33