TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian copper producer Copper Mountain Mining, which operates a mine in southern British Columbia, on Wednesday reported a 9% increase in output, boosted in part by the operation’s new secondary crusher pulling its weight.

The TSX-listed firm reported an output of 21.7-million pounds of copper for the three months ended September 30, setting another new production record for the mine.

The concentrate also included 6 100 oz of gold and 124 100 oz of silver.

During the quarter the mill processed 2.8-million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.421% copper. The mill achieved 90.5% availability and averaged a total of 30 700 t/d throughput.

The company pointed out that optimisation work on the newly installed secondary crusher was ongoing, with the crusher averaging 35 900 t/d during the last week of September, while 43 500 t was recorded for a single day.

“We are extremely pleased with our construction and operating team's efforts on bringing the new $40-million secondary crusher into production on schedule and within budget. Minor modifications to the circuits are ongoing, but finer SAG [semiautogenous grinding] mill feed has confirmed throughput forecasts.

“Current production rates in the 35 000 t/d range are being achieved,” president and CEO James O’Rourke said.

Mining activities continued to be split between Pit 3 and the south-west end of Pit 2. During the quarter a total of 15.3-million tonnes of material was mined, including 4.5-million tonnes of ore and 10.8-million tonnes of waste. The projected life-of-mine strip ratio is 2:1, but was expected to be higher in the early years. The mine had moved an average of about 178 600 t/d of material during the third quarter.

Copper output during the period was in line with guidance; however, a ship-loading error reduced sales during the quarter as the port mistakenly loaded a portion of Copper Mountain’s concentrate while loading another company's concentrate onto the ship.

The port was conducting an investigation into the error and the company had made an insurance claim for the missing concentrate that had an estimated value of $3.6-million.

During the quarter, the mine shipped 37 300 wet metric tonnes of concentrate containing about 18.2-million pounds of copper, 5 900 oz of gold and 89 700 oz of silver, generating an estimated $66.9-million in gross revenue.

Despite paring some gains in recent weeks, Copper Mountain’s TSX-listed stock had gained 33% in the year to date. On Wednesday the stock was down 1.36% at C$2.18 apiece.