Bunker Hill wraps up Pend Oreille Plant demolition

Progress continues to be made at the Bunker Hill Mine in Kellogg, as the mine’s newest stewards continue to work toward full production.

During the latest episode of their webinar series detailing the restart of the mine Thursday morning, Bunker Hill Mining Company CEO and Director Sam Ash explained that last month was a positive one for the company.

“October was really the beginning of what we are seeing at Bunker Hill as far as the transition to a lot more on-site activity as we move towards restart,” he said.

The first new announcement was that the demolition process of the Pend Oreille Processing Plant in Metaline Falls, Wash., has been completed as of Oct. 28.

Bunker Hill purchased the plant in March 2022 with the goal of moving the 10,000 pieces of mill equipment that came with it to Kellogg. Not only has that task been completed, but it was done ahead of schedule and under budget.

“This milestone ensures that the Bunker Hill site is furnished with fit-for-purpose crushing, grinding, flotation and thickening equipment and instrumentation, representing the vast majority of equipment needs for the mine restart,” a news release stated.

As winter approaches, Bunker Hill is making sure to protect the equipment that they just recently got to the site.

“All the Pend Oreille Mill (equipment) that we’ve acquired is now winterized,” Ash said. “Sensitive components are all inside under cover and we’re well set up to continue progress at sight through the winter months.”

Speaking of the mill, Ash said that surface operations have now begun to create a space for bigger and better things.

Following a lengthy evaluation process by Rivers Edge Environmental Services, the company is now ready to demolish the old mill building and start foundational work on creating a new one.

“These activities are expected to conclude by the end of 2022, ensuring readiness for the new mill building that is being procured,” the company said. “The new mill building will utilize the existing building footprint and is expected to arrive in 2023.”

As far as underground work is concerned, a decline continues to be driven from “5 Level” to “6 Level” to make way for critical infrastructure.

“We started what will be a pretty important milestone for the underground, which is the excavation of a drift that will house the primary ventilation fan that we look to be installing in the next couple of months,” Ash said.

Overall, Ash is pleased with the progress that has been made at the mine and is looking forward to continuing the work.

“Just as an overview, I couldn't be happier with where the project is at,” he said. “We are certainly hitting our targets from a cost and timeline perspective. We’re right where we want to be and going forward through the next few months, you will see us accelerate the amount of on-site activity as we move towards restarting this mine.”