TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-listed Copper Mountain Mining on Thursday said it had produced about 57-million pounds of copper from its namesake mine in the south of British Columbia during 2012, below its September full-year guidance of 60-million pounds.

However, Laurentian Bank Securities metals and mining analyst Christopher Chang in a note to clients said copper production of 14.2-million pounds was 8% below the expectatiopn of 15.4-million pounds, and silver production of 67 000 oz was 14% below the expectation of 77 700 oz, as mill throughput and implied grades were lower than expected.

“However, based on 2012 total mill throughput of 9.4-million tons, average copper grade of 0.34%, and production of 57-million pounds (of copper), we estimate the company’s 2012 copper recovery to be 80%, implying an impressive Q4/12 recovery rate of 88%. This is materially above our estimate of 78%,” he said, motivating him to maintain a ‘buy’ recommendation on the company’s stock and a target price of $5.25 a share.

The miner said it had shipped about 59-million pounds of copper, 20 000 oz of gold, and 402 000 oz of silver during 2012, which generated an estimated $247-million in revenue. Since the first shipment of concentrate in September 2011 the mine makes a shipment a month to the smelters in Japan.

Copper Mountain said it mined the Pit 2 and Pit 3 areas and averaged about 170 000 t/d. During 2012, a total of 55-million tons of material were mined, including 12.5-million tons of ore and 42.5-million tons of waste. The expected life-of-mine strip ratio is 2:1, but would be higher in the early years.

The company expects to produce about 80-million pounds of copper this year at a total cash cost of between $1.80/lb and $2/lb of copper net of precious metal credits. The miner expects to produce about 35 000 oz of gold and 315 000 oz of silver this year.

The company’s stock took a beating on the lower-than-expected production results, trading 4.26% lower on the TSX on Thursday at C$3.82 apiece.