With copper sitting near record prices and a host of advantages from its location, a North Thompson mining project is banking on becoming a big player in the Interior and B.C.

Yellowhead Mining recently went public through a listing on the TSX Venture exchange. While the company is valued at about $40 million based on its stock market value, senior executives say they will turn the Harper Creek property into 350 jobs and billions of dollars in revenue over a 20-year mine life.

A major turning point will come this spring, with completion of a preliminary economic assessment on the proposed open pit mine. That will tell executives and investors what it will cost to get the low-grade copper ore, along with some gold and silver, out of the ground and shipped to markets.

It also must complete a review by the provincial Environmental Assessment Office. That review has also triggered a simultaneous review by federal authorities concerned about bull trout at a stream on the property located above the Trans-Canada Highway near Vavenby.

It will spend about $25 million this year at the site, some of which is expected to bring economic benefit to Kamloops through jobs for local drillers as well as contract work at two private assay labs.

Executive vice-president Ron Handford said he doesn't expect any surprises from the economic study. The company believes it can economically mine ore at costs far lower than today's $4.50 a pound copper.

"We'll use numbers much less than that. The banks will only give you very conservative forward prices."

That means numbers that come out this spring will be crucial for the mine's future.

"When was the last time you saw four billion pounds of copper five hours from a major city?" asked Ian Smith, Yellowhead's chief executive officer.

In some ways, Harper Creek is comparable to Highland Valley Copper: both are low-grade deposits that depend on high production rates and low cost mining. Yellowhead estimates it will produce about half the copper ore on a daily basis that comes out of Highland Valley.

"It's the Walmart business plan: high volumes and low margins or it doesn't work," Smith said.

One of the major benefits to Harper Creek is its proximity to infrastructure. Only 90 kilometres north of Kamloops, it is within a few kilometres of Vavenby and eight to 10 kilometers from BC Hydro power lines and the CN Rail tracks beside the North Thompson River.

Like New Gold beside Kamloops, it will have a ready and happy workforce on its doorstep, relieving the company of the high cost of operating camps. Yellowhead is planning for camps only for its mine and mill construction phase, when as many as 450 people will be working on the site.

The 350 workers needed to run the operation, projected to start in 2014, will come from the neighbouring communities of Vavenby, Clearwater and Barriere.

The pre-feasibility study will focus strictly on the resource that's been proven through extensive drilling at the site, which was explored beginning in the late 1960s. But the company has drilling rights to 90 square kilometres around the proposed pit and eventually will drill outward in a bid to expand the resource.

It has conducted geophysical surveys of the surrounding area that look promising but it can only speculate on values until it conducts drilling and detailed analysis.

"We're going to step out with our drilling," said CEO Smith. "We have an obligation to maximize the value of the resource."

Most forecasts of world commodity prices include growing demand for copper, led by China and its voracious demands. That is fueling copper projects in this province.

The Harper Creek deposit is ranked fifth in copper-only among B.C. development projects and eighth when other mineral values are included, higher than New Gold Inc.'s New Afton.

Despite the optimism, challenges abound, including raising an estimated three-quarters of a billion dollars to finance construction, completing the environmental work and obtaining permits from Victoria and Ottawa.

If commodity prices remain strong, by the end of the decade the immediate region around Kamloops could play host to four operating mines: Highland Valley Copper, New Afton, Harper Creek and Abacus Mining's proposed copper mine directly south of Kamloops.