TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed Copper Mountain Mining reported on Friday that it was installing a new secondary crusher, which was scheduled for a mid-summer start-up.

This C$40-million crusher would be the largest cone crusher installed in western Canada and initial foundation work was well under way, with the mild west coast winter greatly reducing the potential extra cost of heating and hoarding of concrete.

Vancouver-based Copper Mountain said the main components of the crusher had arrived at the Port of Halifax, where they were offloaded onto rail for transport to Kamloops, British Columbia, where they would be transported by truck to the mine site.

The general contractor, Gisborne, were reported to now be fully staffed and was proceeding with construction as planned.

Once installed, all the mill feed would be sized to the two-inch range. Plant operating results with minus two-inch material had confirmed that the mill operates consistently at its designed capacity of 35 000 t/d.

Short-term mitigating measures implemented in 2013 to lift mill throughput continued to be successful with another record month of production in January totalling 7.1-million pounds of copper.

The company guided that the average copper head grade for the year would be about 0.375% and red metal production would total between 80-million and 90-million pounds.

Laurentian Bank Securities metals and mining analyst Christopher Chang said that the Copper Mountain operation had little leeway for further cost improvements before the new secondary crusher comes on line.

“We anticipate relatively modest improvements on unit costs for the remainder of the year until the company’s secondary crusher commissions. In our view, commissioning of the secondary crusher in 2015 represents a very significant catalyst for Copper Mountain as operating consistency at the mine should yield materially higher cash flow growth and lower cash costs."

Copper Mountain said that mill throughput was expected to be 32 000 t/d for the first six months of the year, and 35 000 t/d after the new permanent crusher is operational. December and January operational results were in line with the production forecasts.

“While the interim high-intensity blasting and pre-crushing solution has proven to be effective thus far, we believe only minor improvements can be made at this point as the operation is likely approaching a bottleneck in mill throughput. We are maintaining our ‘buy’ recommendation and a $3.25 per share target price,” Chang said in a research note to clients.

Copper Mountain also reported its 2013 full-year results, with copper output growing 17% to 66.2-million pounds from 2012.

The company had swung to a net loss; however, adjusted earnings totalled C$14.5-million, or C$0.15 a share, on revenue of C$233.1-million after pricing adjustments and treatment charges. Total cash costs for the year were $2.22/lb of copper sold.