PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Metals miner Independence Group has reported a mixed bag of results during the three months to December.

The ASX-listed company told shareholders this week that gold production from the Tropicana joint venture, in Western Australia, increased from the 118 204 oz delivered in the September quarter, to 133 742 oz in the December quarter.

Production at Tropicana continued to increase, Independence said, as the annual throughput continued upward, with the mine achieving a rate of 6.5-million tonnes a year during the December quarter, up from the 6.2-million tonnes a year achieved in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, nickel production from the Long mine remained fairly consistent during the quarter under review, with the mine producing 2 246 t of contained nickel, compared with the 2 262 t produced in the previous quarter.

C1 cash costs at Long declined from A$4.24/lb to A$3.68/lb during the December quarter, following a September restructure of the Long operation, which included a mine plan focused on longhole stoping and the discontinuation of higher unit cost mining methods.

At Jaguar, zinc production for the December quarter reached 9 311 t, while copper-in-concentrate production reached 1 447 t. This compared with the 11 407 t of zinc produced in the previous quarter, and the 1 429 t of copper-in-concentrate.

Independence reported that zinc and copper grades at the Jaguar mine were lower than planned during the quarter, which resulted in the lower output.

Meanwhile, construction of the Nova nickel project was progressing well, with the project some 60.7% complete.

The Nova project was expected to start commissioning in late 2016, and would produce its first concentrate by December this year. At full production, the Nova project was expected to deliver about 26 000 t/y of nickel, 11 500 t/y of copper and 850 t/y of cobalt over a ten-year mine life.

During the quarter under review, Independence reported revenues of A$98.4-million and underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of A$29.3-million.