THE COMPANY that wants to build a molybdenum mine at Kitsault on the north coast has lost another senior executive.
Peter Mah has resigned as the chief operating officer of Alloycorp and as president of its subsidiary, Avanti Kitsault Mine Ltd.
The brief announcement was made Nov. 18 with Alloycorp thanking Mah for his service.
Mah was just appointed to the two positions last December.
His resignation follows that of Gordon Bogden who stepped down as president of chief executive officer of Alloycorp in September.
Alloycorp, through its Avanti subsidiary, had fully expected to be building its mine this year but failed to obtain all of the financing it needed.
It also suffered from weak markets for molybdenum which is used as a strengthening agent in steel making.
The company put the project on hold this summer while it commissioned a revised engineering study to better firm up ore recovery expectations and capital costs.
Two weeks ago, Alloycorp released its revised engineering and cost study which added another $395 million to the project budget, pushing the estimated total needed to $1.2 billion.
The project does have provincial and federal environmental approvals and also an economic benefits agreement with the Nisga’a Nation as its location is within territory over which the Nisga’a have an influence as set out in their 2000 land claims agreement.
Alloycorp had also lined up six European institutions as tentative investors with only two, in the end, committing themselves to the project.
Beginning last year, the company did build a 150-person camp at its location in anticipation of a construction start, built a road to the mine site and rebuilt a provincial government bridge over the Nass River so that it could move in heavy equipment.
That work was completed this year.
