TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Gold producer Thompson Creek Metals will spend $47-million on the installation of a new secondary crushing circuit at its Mount Milligan flagship operation in British Columbia, as the company banks on more reliable throughput levels for the long term at a lower cost, compared with temporary secondary crushing arrangements.

Preconstruction activities with regard to the permanent secondary crushing circuit remained on schedule and on budget once it was installed and commissioned; average mill throughput was expected to increase to about 62 500 t/d.

President and CEO Jacques Perron touted the company’s improving production and cost profile on an analyst conference call Thursday morning, pointing to a 24% year-on-year increase in copper output during the three months ended March 31 to about 19-million pounds, while gold output rose 16% in the same period to 53 000 oz.

The operation achieved a unit cash cost of $0.78/lb of copper produced on a by-product basis net of gold credits, a 30% decline from the comparable period in 2015, making it one of world’s lowest-cost copper producers on a by-product basis.

It had completed three copper and gold concentrate shipments.

The company ended the quarter with about $170-million in working capital, including about $140-million in cash.

Perron pointed out that the foreign exchange rate impacted favourably on Mount Milligan cash costs at $1/C$1.37, compared with a year earlier, having had a favourable impact of about $5-million, or $0.27/lb of the red metal in the first quarter.

The mothballed molybdenum business was expected to generate sufficient revenue to substantially cover care-and-maintenance costs and maintain option value of the assets.

Excluding special items, the company reported a wider adjusted loss of $19.3-million, or $0.09 a share, compared with a loss of $14.2-million, or $0.07 a share, in the comparable quarter of 2015. Net income was $35.1-million, compared with a loss of $87.2-million, or $0.41 a share.

Revenue fell 21% year-on-year to $97.4-million in the period, as copper and gold sales contributed $73.4-million in revenue, compared with $68.2-million in the first quarter of 2015. Molybdenum sales were $19.6-million for the first quarter, compared with $42.8-million in the first quarter of 2015.

Thompson Creek advised that Mount Milligan was expected to produce between 125 000 t to 135 000 t of concentrate this year, containing 55-million to 65-million pounds of copper and 240 000 oz to 270 000 oz of gold.

The company’s TSX-listed stock had lost 14.81% in afternoon trading at C$0.46 a share. The stock had gained 86% since the start of the year.