PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper and gold miner Sandfire Resources has reported a solid quarter of production from its DeGrussa operation, in Western Australia, during the three months ended September.
Copper production decreased slightly from 16 446 t in the June quarter to 16 064 t, while gold production edged up from 8 613 oz in the previous quarter to 8 678 oz.
Milling rates during the first quarter were maintained at 1.5-million tonnes, while mining rates also achieved 1.5-million tonnes a year by mid-quarter as Sandfire switched to a new mining contractor at the DeGrussa operation.
The stable production during the September quarter was achieved despite two major mill shutdowns during the period under review, the first to enable a change-out of the semiautogenous grinding (SAG) mill liner and the second to facilitate a first-time change-out of the pulp filters.
The miner was currently in the process of implementing a number of processing improvement projects, including the installation of a pebble crusher, column flotation cell and new classification screen arrangements as part of the SAG milling system.
These projects remained on schedule for completion by the December quarter.
Meanwhile, underground mining at DeGrussa also progressed on schedule during the quarter, with four stopes being on line during the period under review, producing some 3 11 644 t of underground sulphide ore.
At the end of the quarter, the run-of-mine stocks remained at levels exceeding 30 000 t of ore.
Sandfire on Thursday maintained its production expectations for the full 2014 of between 65 000 t and 70 000 t of contained copper material, while gold production was expected to reach between 35 000 oz and 40 000 oz.