The open-ended copper potential at the historic Levack mine, on the north range of the Sudbury basin, has Magna Mining already anointing it as their future flagship operation.
The locally owned mining outfit released a new mineral resource estimate of Levack, the focal point of an extensive exploration effort over the summer and fall.
Magna wants to put Levack back into production but hasn’t officially made a restart decision. Much of the $50 million the company raised in September, is earmarked for Levack.
Ownership of the more-than-a-century-old mining property has changed over the decades, from Inco to Quadra FNX to Polish miner KGHM to Magna.
Magna picked up the mothballed Levack mine in a $33-million deal with KGHM in 2023. The transaction included the operating McCreedy West copper mine, situated next to Levack, and a raft of past-producing mines and prospective properties across the Sudbury basin.
This is the first mineral resource estimate under the Magna banner.
The past-producing property contains 6.1 million tonnes of copper equivalent at 3.5 per cent in the indicated category and 5.2 million tonnes more on the inferred side at 3.6 per cent copper equivalent.
Indicated and inferred resources are terms used in mineral exploration to classify deposits based on the level of geological confidence. Indicated resources have a higher degree of certainty based on more detailed exploration and sampling. Inferred resources have a lower level of confidence based on limited exploration and sampling.
Magna said these numbers will be incorporated into a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) study, due out some time in 2026, that will present Magna’s vision of what the mine will look like.
In the release, Magna said it’s considering driving a ramp to access significant tonnes of nickel and copper in deposits that are close to the surface, while utilizing the mine’s existing No. 2 shaft to hoist high-grade ore from deeper down.
Magna has assembled a team of local experts, skilled at exploring largely overlooked footwall deposits in the Sudbury basin. These can contain high-grade copper and platinum group metals with other minerals in the mix.
At Levack, the Morrison footwall deposit alone hosts 178,000 tonnes of an indicated resource at a very high grade of 15.5 per cent copper equivalent, with the plenty of exploration upside to enlarge that resource.
In a statement, Dave King, Magna’s senior vice-president of exploration and geoscience, said there’s room to grow at Levack.
“There also is potential to expand the Morrison deposit with further drilling as it remains open at depth. The very high-grade precious metals mineralization delineated in the No. 3 Footwall deposit will be a high-priority target for our ongoing exploration efforts, along with other prospective areas in the footwall environment at Levack.”
CEO Jason Jessup said underground development is already underway at Levack with a contractor working on accesses between shaft sections and to help in its future footwall exploration.
“The Levack Mine has quickly become the flagship project within our company and 2026 will be an exciting year as we continue to move towards a production restart while at the same time exploring for new copper – precious metals deposits in the footwall environment at the mine.”
The Levack mine is one of the original operations in the basin. Copper and nickel was discovered there in 1887, with first production in 1915. Operations were halted by Inco in 1997 and it was placed on care and maintenance in 1997. Polish miner KGHM acquired the property in 2002 and mined nickel there until 2008 before it was closed due to low metal prices. KGHM mined the Morrison deposit until 2019.