Magna Mining planning to reopen Sudbury's Crean Hill mine

A Sudbury, Ont. mining company is setting its sights on reviving the Crean Hill mine for further exploration.

Magna Mining Inc. acquired the mine in 2022. It recently completed a preliminary economic assessment on the mine, and the results of the study indicated the potential for more mineral production.

"What has been shown by the drilling that was done prior to Magna is there's still a lot of resources left in the ground, a lot of nickel, a lot of copper, a lot of precious metals," said Jason Jessup, CEO of Magna Mining.

"And that's really what attracted us."

The Crean Hill mine, which is located in the Whitefish area of Greater Sudbury, operated between 1900 and 2002 before it was shut down. The underground mine was owned by various companies, including Inco and Vale, and produced nickel and copper.

Jessup said there could have been a number of factors in the decision to close the mine 20 years ago, including nickel prices at the time and the cost to keep operating. He said the closure of the mine did not necessarily mean there was nothing left to produce.

"Looking at these projects can recognise opportunities that in the past may have been overlooked, or just didn't make sense at those prices,"said Jessup.

Jessup added the company released a resource assessment on the Crean Hill mine in November 2022, and findings identified approximately 31 million tonnes of indicated resource in the open pit and underground categories. Of the 31 million tonnes, Jessup saidthere are over 20 million tonnes that are potentially mineable.

"It's not reserves yet, there still needs to be a lot of technical work done," Jessup said.

The company is projecting a 15-year lifespan for the mine, based on the preliminary assessment, and it envisions a combination of open pit and underground mining during that time.

Jessup said the project is still in its early stages, with more drilling and assessment planned to update the technical understanding of the deposit.

"Over the course of the next one to two years, we'll continue to do technical work, de-risk it, and come up with a higher level of confidence in the mine plan going forward."

The company plans to use the technical work on Crean Hill for an additional technical study that will incorporate both Crean Hill and Magna Mining's Shakespeare mine project into one integrated mining complex. That study is planned for completionby the third or fourth quarter of 2024.

Jessup said that blasting into the rock at Crean Hill could start as early as three months from now to get a surface bulk sample.

"So that would be part of this de-risking process to understand the deposit better, and to reconcile against some of the drilling in the block models that we have," explained Jessup.

"And then potentially we're looking at doing underground advanced exploration next year. So we would develop a new ramp from [the] surface to go down and test areas of our footwall that were either previously not mined, or only partially mined, as well as some of our contact mineralization."

Jessup said starting this project on the Crean Hill mine shows the potential that past-producing properties in Sudbury could have.

"I think that there are a number of other projects that have this kind of potential to be restarted or expanded," said Jessup.

"With this advanced exploration we hope future production will create a lot of high paying jobs in the community. And I think that's always great and we're just so happy to be a part of the mining community here in Sudbury."