Roca Mines is working to resume production

Geotechnical work must be cleared and additional financing is needed to restart production at the Max molybdenum mine

Roca Mines has finished a geotechnical program that surveyed the area around the Max molybdenum mine near Revelstoke, B.C., following the collapse of a sill pillar in September 2010.

A monitoring program will soon be completed; this is based on data collected from the geotechnical survey and will be cleared through the B.C. chief mine inspector in the near future.

"Data collected to this date shows no changes to the stability of workings or mine access," said Scott Broughton, CEO of Roca Mines, in a press release.

Stope development and long-hole drilling are required to restart production, and company contractors are streamlining staffing and resources to ensure operations can begin when enough capital has been raised.

Once production restarts, company management wants to move forward on plans to expand production capacity by an additional 1,000 tonnes per day.

Production shut down after the sill pillar collapse and the company completed rehabilitation work by December 2010. Private placement financing was sought last November and this past April, with SeAH Holdings Corp. being the latest investor to sign on to the project.