Energy, Mines, and Resources
Minerals
Major Mine Licensing - Carmacks Copper
Carmacks Copper project, owned by Western Copper Corporation, is located 198 km north of Whitehorse. It is expected to be a low-cost producer of cathode copper which will employ solvent extraction and electro-winning techniques to recover oxide copper.
A recent feasibility study supports the development of the open-pit mine and indicated and inferred resources are approximately 10.6 million tonnes at a grade of 1.044 per cent copper, 0.483 grams per tonne gold and 4.62 grams per tonne silver, with a six year ore production life.
The mining operation is designed to produce an average of 1.77 million tonnes of ore per year or approximately 28,000 tonnes (ore and waste) per day on a seven day per week, 24 hours per day basis. The mine will be operated year round, but ore production may be suspended in the coldest months. Acid leaching and processing will occur year round.
The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) has completed an environmental and socio-economic assessment. The Yukon Government and Natural Resources Canada, as the two Decision Bodies, have issued their decision documents to ‘accept’ the recommendation of the YESAB Executive Committee to allow the project to proceed subject to mitigative terms and conditions.
The project has now been issued a Quartz Mining License. This license provides the authorization under the Quartz Mining Act for Western Copper Corporation to proceed with development, production, reclamation and decommissioning of the proposed mine. Additional approvals for the major mine structures will be subject to review by the Yukon government as detailed engineering designs are prepared and submitted by the company.
A Type A water license will be required in order for the project to proceed. These plans will be posted on this site as they are available for review.
Licenses, Authorizations or Approvals
Approval of Closure and Reclamation Plan 
762 KB - Approval of General Site Plan 435 KB
- Quartz Mining License 1.9 MB
- Preliminary Detailed Closure and Reclamation Plan May 2009 1.1 MB
- Main Construction Site Plan 7.5 MB
- All Appendices (Except D and H) 13 MB
No security is currently held by Yukon on this project.