Gunnison Copper Announces Johnson Camp SX Plant Start-Up with First Copper Sales in September

Source: Gunnison Copper Corp.

 Gunnison Copper Corp. (TSX: GCU) (OTCQB: GCUMF) (FSE: 3XS0) ("Gunnison" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the solvent extraction (SX) plant and electrowinning (EW) circuit has started with first copper sales expected in September at the Company's Johnson Camp Mine ("JCM"), in southeast Arizona.

"With the start-up of the SX-EW plant ahead of schedule we have achieved another major step towards our targeted copper cathode sales in September this year," states Robert Winton, SVP Operations. He continues, "the dedicated team at Johnson Camp has executed this startup without incident and in record time, preparing for our first harvest of Made-in-America copper to be sold in Q3 this year."

Progress as of the Company's last update (see Gunnison news release dated July 22nd) includes:

  • Leaching of mineralized run-of-mine material started with copper rich solution being pumped to the SX-EW plant (Figure 1 below).
  • SX Plant started (Figure 2 below)
  • EW Circuit started and being readied for Copper Plating (Figure 3 below)

 

Since the Company's last update, the Company is pleased to report that JCM construction activities, funded by Nuton LLC, a Rio Tinto venture, continue to progress as planned. The final phase of the leach pad construction is on schedule. The on-pad crushing circuit, which will be used with the Nuton Technologies, has been installed and started commissioning activities. The agglomerator and processing equipment, which will also be used on the Nuton pad, has been placed and the Company is completing final mechanical and electrical construction of these components. The new LNG (liquid natural gas) system at the EW plant was fully commissioned and operating in line with electrowinning start-up.

Figure 1 - Aerial view showing the first four panels of the run-of-mine leach pad under leach and green copper solution collecting on the top right-hand corner of the leach pad before being pumped to the SX-EW plant.

 

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Figure 2 - The left image shows green colored, copper rich solution from the leach pad, being pumped into the lined collection pond near the processing plant, ready for treatment. The right image shows upgraded, blue colored, copper electrolyte solution produced from the SX plant being readied for electrowinning and copper cathode production.

 

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Figure 3 - This image shows the electrowinning plant being readied by loading stainless steel blank cathodes into the electrowinning cells, ready for plating pure copper metal onto them later this month.

 

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Find this news release in it's entirety at https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/261935 

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