Western Copper and Gold outlines Casino mine timeline, transport study and port impacts for Skagway

Western Copper and Gold representatives briefed the Ports and Harbors Advisory Board on Jan. 14 on the proposed Casino open‑pit copper–gold–molybdenum project, a transportation study for moving concentrate to Skagway and a permitting and construction timeline that could stretch several years.

Sheena Shaw, vice president of environmental and community affairs for Western Copper and Gold, said the deposit would support a 27‑year mine life after a four‑year construction period and outlined costs and workforce estimates: "the cost to build the project is $3,600,000,000," and construction would use about 1,400 employees while operations would employ "about 6 or 700 employees." Shaw said the company proposes two processing streams—a heap leach for the weathered upper material and a mill for higher‑copper rock—and an on‑site 200‑megawatt LNG‑fired generating station sized to provide redundancy for a roughly 30‑megawatt continuous draw for processing.

Shaw also described the current permitting stage. She said the project will be the first in the Yukon to go through the highest assessment level called a panel review process and compared it to environmental assessment regimes elsewhere: "you have to finish your environmental assessment and get your decision before you can apply for a permit." She said the company aims to submit its environmental assessment statement in summer 2025 and, under the company’s…