Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals produced 93 500 t of copper during the third quarter, to the end of September, an increase of 14% compared with production for the corresponding period in 2008.

For the first nine months of 2009, the company produced 275 300 t of copper, 15% higher than a year earlier.

On a yearly basis, third-quarter production is running at a 368 200-t rate, which is lower than the company’s 2009 guidance of 380 000 t.

RBC Capital Markets comments that First Quantum’s third-quarter production was slightly lower than expectations, with the yearly run rate of 3,2% also being below guidance.

“The company will need to ramp up production in the next quarter by 12,6% sequentially to 105 300 t in order to achieve the yearly production number. This will likely prove to be challenging,” it states.

First Quantum has assets in Mauritania, the Democra- tic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia.

In September, the company halted operations at its Kolwezi project, after an order was issued by the general prosecutor of the DRC’s Katanga province to ‘seal’ the facilities of Kingamyambo Musonoi Tailings (KMT), the permit holder, as part of the DRC government’s review of 61 mining deals.

The Kolwezi project is owned by First Quantum (65%), DRC State mining company Gécamines (12,5%), the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (10%), the International Finance Corporation (7,5%) and the government of the DRC (5%).

KMT and Congo Minerals Development (CMD), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Quantum, filed three suits against DRC State miner Gécamines and the mining regulatory agency, the CAMI.

However, last week, lawyers for KMT and CMD told a court in the capital, Kinshasa, that the companies no longer wished to pursue the case but were being forced by the defendants to continue.

The court rejected the company’s request to drop legal action against the government and State agencies. Under Congolese law, both the plaintiff and defendant must agree to drop a civil case.

Many analysts expect First Quantum to bring the case before international arbitration in order to defend its investment, while the DRC government would prefer to have the matter decided in its own court system.

First Quantum president Clive Newall told Mining Weekly that the company was keeping strict radio silence with regard to its activities in the DRC.

He added that the company could not comment further until all issues had been resolved.

Meanwhile, the company stated that stockpiles of copper concentrate at the end of the third quarter decreased 30% across its opera- tions, compared with the June 30 levels, to about 25 500 t of copper in concentrate.

The stockpile at its Kansanshi mine, in Zambia, decreased 35%, reflecting a full quarter of export shipments following the receipt, in May, of a government exemption on the 15% concentrate export levy.

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