The Copper Mountain project is an open-pit mine located in Princeton, British Columbia (BC), Canada.
The mine was developed by Copper Mountain Mining (CMMC) (75%) and Mitsubishi Materials (25%).
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Mining operations commenced in March 2011 and the mine was officially inaugurated in August of the same year.
Hudbay Minerals acquired CMMC through a plan of arrangement in June 2023, gaining a 75% interest in the project.
In April 2025, Hudbay Minerals completed the purchase of Mitsubishi’s 25% stake in the Copper Mountain mine, gaining full ownership of the mine.
Hudbay is looking to extend the approved life of the Copper Mountain mine through to 2040 by carrying out a three-phase pushback of the historic Ingerbelle pit.
The proposed expansion is intended to maintain operations, protect existing jobs and continue providing significant economic benefits to the region and nearby communities.
Location
The Copper Mountain project is situated 15km south-west of Princeton, BC, Canada.
It covers approximately 18,000 acres of mining land held under a combination of 135 crown grants, 132 mineral claims, 14 mining licences, eight cell mineral claims and 12 fee simple lots.
Reserves
The proven and probable mineral reserves are estimated at 367 million tonnes (mt), grading 0.25% copper and 0.12 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Beyond the current mineral reserves, the project includes a further 140mt of measured and indicated resources grading 0.21% copper and 0.10g/t gold, plus 370mt of inferred resources at 0.25% copper and 0.13g/t gold.
This resource base offers substantial upside through potential conversion to reserves and an extended mine life.
Geology and mineralisation
The deposit at the project site is classified as an alkali porphyry copper deposit with gold admixture.
It is part of the northerly trending Mesozoic tectonostratigraphic terrane known as Quesnellia. The major rock formation of Quesnellia is the late Triassic Nicola group.
The Nicolo group rocks have a stratigraphic thickness of approximately 7.5km and form a 25km-wide band extending from the Canada-US border northwards to beyond Kamloops Lake.
The Copper Mountain alkalic porphyry copper-gold camp exists in the eastern volcanic belt of the Nicolo Group.
The copper-gold mineralisation at Copper Mountain occurs in a north-westerly trending belt of Nicola Group rocks approximately 5km long and 2km wide. The mineralisation is temporally and spatially associated with the Lost Horse Intrusive Complex.
Mining method at Copper Mountain project
The Copper Mountain project is being developed using conventional open-pit mining methods involving blast hole drilling, blasting, shovel loading and truck haulage.
It is the first open-pit mine in North America to introduce an electric trolley-assist haulage system, cutting emissions while boosting operational efficiency.
Mining is conducted in two areas, namely the Copper Mountain Pits (currently in operation) and New Ingerbelle. A low-grade stockpile is also maintained for reclamation during the later part of the mine life.
The mining fleet consists of diesel production drills, diesel shovels, electric production drills, electric shovels, haul trucks of 220t capacity and related ancillary equipment.
In December 2023, a Komatsu PC8000-11 was delivered to the mine. It is the largest surface mining excavator on the market, standing 9.7m tall and 10m wide, and operates solely on electric power. The mine also operates two electric PC8000s and seven Komatsu 830E-5 hybrid trucks.
Ore processing
The process plant at Copper Mountain has a throughput of 45,000 tonnes per day (tpd). The run-of-mine ore is directly dumped into the primary gyratory crusher.
The ore crushed in the primary crusher is transported to the secondary crusher, where it is combined with the screen undersize and conveyed to the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) feed stockpile.
The SAG discharge is screened via a single-deck vibratory screen with 15mm apertures. Screen oversize is directed to the pebble-crushing circuit, while the undersize is sent to the SAG transfer pump box.
The discharge-screen undersize from the SAG transfer pump box is pumped to a splitter box, distributing the slurry to three ball mill circuits. The ball mill circuits produce a flotation feed with a nominal P80 of 150 microns.
The flotation circuit comprises three cyclone overflow streams that are combined and treated with mineral collectors and a frother.
The bulk flotation area includes ten rougher cells, two rougher-scavenger cells, two first-cleaner columns, one first-cleaner column, three direct flotation reactor second cleaners, five cleaner-scavenger cells, a regrind ball mill and regrind flash-flotation cells.
The copper-concentrate product is directed to a high-rate thickener. The thickened concentrate is then pumped into an agitated-concentrate stock tank before undergoing filtration.
Two pressure filters dewater the copper concentrate to less than 9% moisture, and the filtered concentrate gravitates directly into the concentrate storage shed for transport to the Port of Vancouver by truck.
Mill optimisation initiatives are currently in progress at the mine, aiming to lift processing throughput to 50,000tpd by mid-2026.
Copper Mountain project site infrastructure
The Copper Mountain mining area is easily accessible by highway, and the nearest railway access is around 120km away in Hope.
BC Hydro transmits power from the Nicola Substation near Merritt to the mine via a 138-kilovolt transmission line known as 1L251.
Freshwater is drawn from the Similkameen River for mining purposes.
Contractors involved
Mansfield Consulting conducted an economic impact study of the Copper Mountain mine for Hudbay in May 2025.
Technology solutions provider ABB secured a contract to provide a comprehensive trolley-assist system for open-pit haul trucks for the Copper Mountain project in April 2021.
SMS Equipment supplied the Komatsu PC8000-11 mining excavator for the project.
