Copper Mountain, in southern British Columbia, is just a three-hour drive east of Vancouver and 15km south of the town of Princeton. The area is no stranger to mining, having nearly 100 years of copper, gold and silver production. What’s changing is the scale of the operation. In 1905, the British Columbia Copper Company made several attempts to get a mine running; but success wasn’t achieved until Granby Mining took over in 1927. Over the next 30 years, Granby mined 30 million tons, by underground methods, at a head grade of about 1.3 percent copper. In the 1960s, Newmont Mining explored the area and discovered the Ingerbelle deposit immediately to the west of Granby’s operation, but on the other side of the Similkameen River.

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If the United States intends to forge new paths in the production of renewable energy and low-carbon technologies, it must revive production of rare earths and other hard rock minerals. Molycorp Minerals LLC – a rare earth producer and technology company – will assist the country to make the transition, General Manager Rocky Smith says.

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