Augusta Resources off to the races after environment permit granted for massive Tucson copper mine

And we’re off

Augusta Resource Corp. (TSX/NYSEAMEX:AZC) jumped more than 10% on Monday after announcing it has received an air quality permit from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) after the permit for its Rosemount project was originally denied.

Augusta’s Rosemont Copper project near Tucson, Arizona now meets all federal, state and local requirements by operating with enhanced emissions controls at the mine site.

By early afternoon the miner was trading up 10.7% at $2.26 on the NYSE AMEX, after earlier spiking to $2.30. The Toronto TSX was closed on Monday for a public holiday in Canada.

After being hammered following the earlier denial of the environmental permit, Augusta has now added 24% in value to $325 million over the last month after analyst upgrades and an updated pre-feasibility study. The counter is still showing losses for 2012 – it is down 27% year to date.

According to the Rosemount update released last month, mine construction and commissioning is pegged at $1.23 billion of which $113 million has already been spent with planned production scheduled for 2015.

At full tilt Rosemont could account for about 10% of annual US copper output. Silver would be mined as a byproduct over a 21-year-mine life. Rosemont hosts a copper/molybdenum reserve of 5.9 billion pounds of copper and 194 million pounds of molybdenum.

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