Grinding machines in the Humboldt Mill in Champion. After ore is crushed it is grinded to 80 microns, creating a texture similar to fine sand. Water is added to pulverized ore to create a slurry. Lundin is looking to expand the life of the mine to early 2029. (Journal photo by Dreyma Beronja)

CHAMPION — Eagle Mine held another round of community forums earlier this month to update the public on continued efforts being made for operation.

One of those updates included possibly extending the life of the mine to early 2029.

“We’re making a very educated ‘guesstimate’ on what our costs are going to be out there (in 2026 or 2027) and more of a guesstimate on what the price of nickel is going to be out there,” Eagle Mine Managing Director Darby Stacey said in an interview with The Mining Journal on Thursday. “Right now with where we feel things are going, where we’re at, what we can do and we’ve got experts looking at the metal price forecasts, we feel we can mine economically out to early 2029.”

But if something shifts significantly, he said, such as the costs being higher than anticipated or the price of nickel being much lower than anticipated, the mine life could “shrink up.”

“Those gaps could reappear in that mineral inventory because we can’t economically get at it,” Stacey said. “Eagle, historically, has never been in that position. Our ore is very valuable and so it almost doesn’t matter what the price is. You’re going to be able to make a margin on this in a different zone, a very low-grade material where efficiency matters, price really matters. But we’re very incentivized to keep things going and try to do everything that we can to extend that out.”

Eagle Mine has 470 employees working at the mine and at Humboldt Mill. Stacey said “it’s a big deal to them (employees)” that the mine does everything it can to extend the life of mine and maximize what it can get out of the resource.

“It’s almost like being a steward of the resource,” he said. “We do it the right way, take care of our people — who better to get the nickel than us and just maximize everything we can.”

Moving forward, one of Eagle Mine’s goals, Stacey said, is looking “very seriously” at the paste backfill project.

“What we’re looking at is actually to use our waste product here at the mill site called tailings,” he said. “If we can de-water that tailing into a filter cake, almost like a sand-type product, haul that back up to the mine, mix that cement, then we can fill those voids in the mine with paste rather than cemented rock.”

Stacey said all the technical work for the project is being done now.

“We need to really define all the environmental considerations that would support a permit application for that type of change and then all the detailed engineering work that would need to happen here at the mill and at the mine site to build that type of process to be able to enable that,” he said.

Eagle Mine External Affairs Manager Matt Johnson said next year Eagle Mine will have a funding opportunity it can apply for through a program with the Federal Department of Energy to help pay for some of the projects to help extend the mine life.

He said the mine is also looking for community feedback through regular surveys. Residents can go to eaglemine.com/localvoices to take the November survey and share views and experiences on Eagle Mine, its environmental impacts and more.

According to the mine’s website, the Voconiq Local Voices project aims to “improve engagement between Eagle Mine and community by increasing understanding and generating better relationships and outcomes.” The survey takes about 10 minutes and helps inform Eagle Mine’s decision-making and planning.

For more information, visit eaglemine.com.