PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Kanmantoo copper mine, in South Australia, delivered to expectations during the quarter ended March, ASX-listed copper miner Hillgrove Resources reported on Thursday.
The company produced 5 013 t of copper-in-concentrate during the quarter under review, compared with 4 826 t produced in the previous quarter.
Some 5.6-million tonnes of material was mined during the quarter, consisting of 991 000 t of ore, with 103 000 t of oxide and transitional ore placed onto long-term stockpiles.
Hillgrove told shareholders that while the Emily Star pit performed well during the quarter, mining operations at the Nugent pit were less than impressive, with grades and tonnes performing poorly compared with the resource estimates. Mining at the Nugent pit was completed early in the quarter.
Meanwhile, the processing plant at Kanmantoo performed well, with mill throughput above plan. Hillgrove said that the plant performance was able to offset the impact of lower grades, but noted that recovery from the plant was slightly below plan as a result of the lower overall head grades, the treatment of remaining older lower-grade stockpiles and some transitional ore.
Hillgrove reported revenues of some A$41.1-million during the quarter under review, with 22 714 t of copper-in-concentrate sold during the quarter.
The miner had maintained its full-year outlook expectations, with the Kanmantoo mine expected to produce between 18 500 t and 20 500 t of copper-in-concentrate, and between 5 000 oz and 6 000 oz of gold-in-concentrate.