The Sasa mine in Macedonia
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – UK-based Central Asia Metals (CAML), which bought the Sasa zinc/lead mine in Macedonia last year, has had a good start to 2018, despite cold weather conditions at its Kounrad mine, in Kazakhstan.
The Kounrad mine produced 3 070 t of copper in the first quarter, compared with 3 357 t in the same quarter of last year, despite operating in the coldest winter in Kazakhstan in five years, with a week in January averaging -38 °C.
CAML said on Thursday that the Western Dumps raffinate heating system, which formed part of the Stage 2 expansion programme, worked well in its first winter of operation, with 2 302 t of copper having being leached from these dumps. This equates to 75% of total Kounrad first quarter of 2018 production.
CAML produced 5 518 t of zinc and 7 020 t of lead, which compares with 5 289 t and 7 286 t, respectively, in the same quarter of 2017, which predates the company’s ownership of the Sasa mine.
In the March 2018 quarter, 11 385 t of concentrate containing 48.5% zinc, and 9 587 t of concentrate containing 73.2% lead, were produced.
The mine, which typically receives about 85% of the value of its zinc in concentrate and 95% of the value of its lead in concentrate, delivered payable zinc production of 4 690 t and payable lead output of 6 669 t.
CAML has set a 2018 production target of 13 000 t to 14 000 t of copper cathode, 21 000 t to 23 000 t of zinc in concentrate and 28 000 t to 30 000 t of lead in concentrate.
In 2017, Kounrad produced 14 103 t of copper, which was a record performance, while Sasa’s zinc-in-concentrate production was 21 585 t and 29 881 t.
"Adding Sasa to our portfolio has developed CAML from a copper company to a diversified low cost base metals producer. Including our zinc and lead production from Sasa, CAML's annual copper equivalent production has now increased by approximately 150% to 35 000 t, and copper equivalent recoverable resources have increased by almost 200%,” said chairperson Nick Clarke.
The company on Thursday also published its 2017 full-year results, reporting that Kounrad’s C1 cash cost was $0.52/lb, compared with $0.43/lb, and that Sasa 2017 C1 zinc equivalent cash cost was $0.44/lb.
Gross revenue increased from $69.3-million in 2016 to $106.5-million in 2017.
Adjusted group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased from $39.9-million to $66.4-million.
"2017 was a strong year for all of the base metals in CAML's portfolio, with the three metals averaging a price increase of 28%. Going forward into 2018, many industry commentators are expecting a challenging year for copper supply that could result in another positive 12 months for the copper price. In the zinc market, supply side challenges remain, while demand is expected to increase to over 15-million tonnes by 2019,” said Clarke.
NEW CEO, CFO
Meanwhile, CAML announced the appointments of Nigel Robinson as CEO and Gavin Ferrar as CFO, with effect from April 16, 2018. Robinson is currently CFO and Ferrar is business development director.