It’s been nearly five months since a major collapse at the MAX Molybdenum Mine shut down production, putting employees out of work.
In that time, president and CEO Scott Broughton has worked steadily to rejuvenate the award-winning mine.
On its website, ROCA Mines announced they have been meeting with staff and consultants from the mines inspection branch, as well as British Columbia’s chief inspector of mines, to get the molybdenum mining production based outside of Trout Lake up and running again.
In essence, ROCA is planning on building a new sill pillar, since the old one collapsed in September, 2010.
They will continue mining after the new pillar is in place, but not without meeting a set of new conditions.
“Those conditions include the development of a geotechnical program to survey the existing stope and to map the main ramp and manway,” Scott Broughton wrote in a press release.
Broughton also highlights the mistakes of the past, stating information collected from the old pillar collapsing will influence the design of the new one.
Currently, ROCA has no definite production start date. They also don’t yet know when they will begin a new round of hiring. But Broughton says they will provide that information as soon as possible.