Hudbay has released a plan to its employees detailing how the company will move almost all of its Flin Flon operations to Snow Lake starting in 2022, cutting or moving more than 90 per cent of the company’s current in-town jobs in the process.
In an internal memo to Hudbay employees dated Sept. 22 and signed off on by Hudbay Manitoba Business Unit vice-president Rob Assabgui, the company provided its most detailed plan yet for the shutdown of the Flin Flon zinc plant, oxygen plant and 777 mine between fall 2020 and the end of 2022. The new plan includes both a timeline for the Flin Flon shutdown and a second timeline for increasing mine infrastructure and worker numbers in Snow Lake.
The company plans to ramp up production at the refurbished New Britannia mill next summer, then begin moving workers from Flin Flon operations to Snow Lake in January 2022. The employee moves from Flin Flon to Snow Lake will take place over the following 9-10 months. New jobs at New Brit will open next summer.
At first, workers moved over from Hudbay Flin Flon operations to Hudbay Snow Lake with work on developing the company’s planned gold projects at Lalor.
“As the development activities ramp down at 777 mine in Q1 2022, we will begin to transition employees to Lalor mine, which will initially focus on taking over the development in the Lalor gold zones,” reads the internal memo.
The biggest changes will come in summer 2022, with the company planning on milling its final ore in Flin Flon, casting the final metal at the zinc plant and depleting what’s left of the mine reserves at 777 during the season. Closure activity will begin at 777, the oxygen plant and zinc plant during the summer, while the Flin Flon mill and powerhouse will move into care and maintenance.
Closure and care and maintenance at the Flin Flon mine compound is slated to be completed by fall 2022.
“We expect the transition to occur in a phased approach throughout the year and once mining is completed at 777 mine, a smaller workforce will remain to complete the closure activities which are expected to be completed by end of Q3 2022. The surface plants in Flin Flon will also retain a smaller workforce to complete the closure and care and maintenance activities,” reads the memo.
By the time 2023 begins, Hudbay operations in Snow Lake will include Lalor mine, the New Britannia gold mill and the base metal mill at Stall. Flin Flon-area jobs will consist of care and maintenance staff, security and some administrative jobs. The on-site concentrate handling and fabrication shop operations will continue.
“We have determined that concentrate handling will continue in Flin Flon post closure. A smaller trades workforce will also be retained for the fabrication shops in Flin Flon which will support the fabrication needs for the Snow Lake operations,” reads the memo.
Hudbay currently employs 785 workers in Flin Flon. In 2023, the company expects that number to drop to 50 employees. At Snow Lake-area operations, Hudbay plans on increasing employees from 505 today to 730 in 2023. Administrative support staff will drop from 150 people to 100 in the next three years. One hundred Hudbay employees are eligible for retirement, with the company expecting 180 to be eligible in 2023.
All told, Hudbay estimates it employs 1,440 people at Manitoba operations in Sept. 2020. Once most Flin Flon operations are shuttered, the company will employ 880 people - a deduction of 560 workers in two-and-a-half years.
The company will also continue on with its long-held strategy of bringing in Hudbay employees to do jobs currently done by outside contractors in Snow Lake. Hudbay’s Snow Lake expansion plans, even in early stages, have included moving contractors out.
“Hudbay is committed to doing everything possible to minimize the impacts of the transition on our workforce, and is committed to creating new jobs for Hudbay employees by taking over the development, longhole drilling, blasting, and maintenance activities currently being outsourced at Lalor mine,” reads the memo.
“Hudbay is working closely with our unions to clarify the process that will be used during the reduction and restoration process and the associated collective agreement requirements. It is our hope to ensure every employee knows as far in advance as possible where they will be after the transition is completed.”
While some Flin Flon workers and union groups have seen Hudbay’s 1901 project near the former Chisel mine as a possible failsafe for Flin Flon operations once reserves at 777 run out, the company said the deposit will not be developed soon enough to provide relief in Flin Flon. Another Hudbay memo revealed that information earlier this year.
“As previously communicated, the 1901 deposit will not be developed in time to potentially allow for an extension of the zinc plant. Once 777 Mine shuts down, the zinc plant will also be required to shutdown due to limited ZPL tailing storage availability and a lack of zinc concentrate,” reads the memo.
