PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Tiger Resources on Tuesday told shareholders that it would likely exceed its 2013 production target of 37 000 t of copper concentrate at its Kipoi copper project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The miner has revised the production guidance for the Stage 1 heavy media separation (HMS) operation to between 41 000 t and 43 000 t for the full 2013.
Year-to-date production until the end of May reached 16 182 t of copper in concentrate, supporting a production estimate of 19 500 t for the six months to June.
Tiger noted that the Kipoi mine plan had been updated to include the recent grade-control drilling results, which would take the HMS processing operation until the end of 2014. The resultant mine model had reported an increase in copper grade, compared with the original model, and on this basis, HMS production for the six months to December had been targeted to between 21 500 t and 23 500 t.
The HMS operation would continue until the end of 2014, after the completion and ramp-up of the Stage 2 solvent extraction electrowinning plant, which would result in residues of some 6.1-million tons of material, grading 2.4% copper, being made available to start Stage 2 operations.