Photo by: TVI Pacific
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Calgary, Alberta-based TVI Pacific on Wednesday said that it had completed the thirty-ninth, and last shipment of copper concentrate produced at the Canatuan mine, on the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, after the openpit had been exhausted.
The TSX-listed firm said the shipment, comprising 4 118 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of concentrate containing 17.16% copper, left the Port of Santa Maria in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, bound for the receiving docks of MRI Trading under the two companies’ offtake agreement.
TVI expected gross revenue of about $7.6-million for the shipment.
The company said it had started with condemnation drilling and exploration work in areas within the tenement, which could potentially extend mine life.
The mine-decommissioning plan would proceed only after these works had been completed.
Since completing construction in November 2008 of a sulphide production plant at Canatuan to process the underlying sulphide orebody containing copper and zinc, the TVI subsidiary TVI Resource Development Philippines, had completed 39 shipments of copper concentrate for a total volume of about 199 778 dmt and seven shipments of zinc concentrate for a total volume of 30 548 dmt, compared with the 119 800 dmt of copper concentrate and 6 100 dmt of zinc concentrate first contemplated for the mine.
TVI said that the reserves mined had significantly exceeded the initial reserve estimates as a result of more material being found and mined. This material, consisting of banded sulphides with low-grade chlorite schists, was used in ore blending to optimise mill recoveries and was located both inside and outside the pit shell and not included in the original ore reserves.