TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – British Columbia- (BC-) focused base metals miner Taseko has increased its third-quarter copper output 30% to 36.7-million pounds at its 75%-owned Gibraltar mine.
The increase was mainly the result of optimising the grinding circuits, improved recoveries and a higher head grade, the company reported on Monday.
In the last 12 months, copper production had increased 34% from 21-million pounds a quarter.
Second-quarter production totalled 28.1-million pounds of copper, a 21% increase over the previous quarter, as the flagship Gibraltar mine ramped up production from its Concentrator 2 as part of the Gibraltar Development Plan III.
Molybdenum production totalled 284 000 lb, down on the 333 000 lb reported in the second quarter.
President and CEO Russell Hallbauer said the mill availability increased from 83% in the second quarter, to 87% in the third quarter ended September 30.
“There still remain significant opportunities for further mill throughput increases as we move toward the target availability of 93.5%,” he said.
Hallbauer explained that the operations team was still gaining a thorough understanding of how to best manage ore feed to the two concentrators and more production improvements were expected.
“Important in this integration is how we will process certain types of ore, with differing characteristics, which may allow the concentrators to function above design capacity,” he said.
Total sales for the quarter were 26.7-million pounds of copper and 110 000 lb of molybdenum. The reduced copper sales were a result of a vessel delay at the end of the quarter, resulting in a carry-over of 13.6-million pounds of copper inventory, which would be included in fourth quarter sales.
The Gibraltar operation is a joint venture between Taseko and Cariboo Copper.