PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper and gold miner Sandfire Resources has exceeded its production expectations for the fourth quarter ended June, with the miner producing some 18 637 t of copper and 9 499 oz of gold.

Copper production exceeded the expected 17 000 t forecast at the end of the March quarter, and was also above the 17 103 t of copper produced in the three months to March. Gold production for the June quarter was slightly below the 10 150 oz delivered in the March quarter.

For the full-year to June 30, copper production reached 67 154 t, while gold production of 37 386 oz was achieved.

Mill throughput at DeGrussa, in Western Australia, remained at an annualised rate of 1.6-million tonnes for the June quarter, with 399 525 t of ore milled. The mill rate was also maintained at 1.7-million tonnes a year.

Sandfire noted that process plant enhancements at DeGrussa mine had delivered strong improvements during the quarter, increasing copper recoveries by around 2% and significantly enhancing plant efficiency.

Copper recoveries during the June quarter averaged 92.4%.

The miner noted that ongoing optimisation work was continuing, including the installation of further processing plant controls and increased integration of geometallurgical parameters.

The optimisation work was aimed at delivering a copper recovery of 92% and grades of around 4.5% copper for the 2016 financial year. Further opportunities to lift recoveries above this level were also being investigated now that the plant performance had been stabilised, Sandfire said.

For 2016, Sandfire was targeting copper production of 65 000 t to 68 000 t of contained copper metal, with gold production expected to range from 35 000 oz to 40 000 oz.

Meanwhile, C1 cash costs for the quarter ended June had remained steady at some $0.98/lb, while C1 cash costs for the full 2016 were expected to reach between $0.95/lb and $1.05/lb.