 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Output at the Ruashi mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, would rise to about 3 000 t/m of copper cathode and 330 t/m of contained cobalt by the 2011 financial year, base-metals-miner Metorex reported on Wednesday.
A detailed two-year mining schedule for the mine had been completed, with JSE-listed Metorex planning to process 904 000 t of openpit feed and feed from stockpiles and tailings resources for the remaining eights months of the 2010 financial year.
This would result in the production of 20 000 t of copper cathode and 1 756 t of contained cobalt during the eight months to end June 30, 2010.
“The Ruashi mine continues to improve output and the mine produced 2 512 t of copper and 274 t of cobalt for the month of October 2009 and the plant tonnage throughput is at 90% of capacity,” CEO Terence Goodlace said in a statement.
The Metorex share price jumped 7,5% to R3,28 a share on the news that output at Ruashi is improving. By late afternoon, the company’s shares traded at R3,24 a share.
Copper cathode production was forecast to stabilise at about 36 000 t/y for the life-of-mine of Ruashi, while contained cobalt output would increase further to between 4 000 t/y and 5 000 t/y by the 2013 financial year.
“The Ruashi life-of-mine plan has been completed to the required level of technical diligence utilising the new resource model. We can now move forward and build off the current base through completing the production ramp-up and advancing the infill drilling required to bring inferred resources into account,” noted Goodlace.
Ruashi currently had a life-of-mine of more than ten years, based on the current reserves.
The life-of-mine schedule currently excluded the processing of about 600 000 t of low-grade tailings and the conversion of any inferred resources to reserves, as well as other processing opportunities.
Other potential processing opportunities that the group still needed to investigate in the short term were sulphide mining and processing options through the Phase 1 concentrator, which was currently on care-and-maintenance.
The plant had an installed ore processing capacity to treat 480 000 t/y, Metorex stated.
Meanwhile, Goodlace noted that the sale of its 55% stake in the fluorspar producer, Vergenoeg Mining, to its Spanish joint-venture partner Minerales Y Productos Derivados, for $60-million, would be completed during December.
The Spain-based firm owned currently owned 30% of Vergenoeg Mining, while Metorex had sold the remaining 15% stake to a consortium of black investors in July.
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