JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Queensland copper producer CuDeco on Tuesday started production of high-quality sulphide copper concentrates from the newly built processing plant at its flagship Rocklands operation, in Cloncurry.

This follows the project’s first shipment of native copper concentrate, which has been transported to the Port of Townsville for delivery to customers in China under the agreement with China Oceanwide International Investment.

Preliminary analysis of the sulphide copper concentrate currently being produced at Rocklands indicates the grade is well above the minimum specification of 25% copper. This indicates the processing plant is performing well and ore and concentrate characteristics from Rocklands are in line with design expectations.

The ball mill has been operating steadily at more than 95% availability and CuDeco continues to monitor its performance in the ramp up to full production.

The ASX-listed company remains on track to start continuous bulk shipments of sulphide copper concentrates from Rocklands in late September or early October.

“Management, operators and contractors have been working hard to ensure the smooth transition from commissioning to production and it is very pleasing to achieve these new milestones.

“The quality of the sulphide copper concentrates produced from our new processing plant is excellent, particularly given it is still early in the production ramp-up phase,” CuDeco MD Dr Dianmin Chen said in a statement on Tuesday.

He added that the concentrate grades were expected to improve even further once the grinding and flotation circuits were fine-tuned to reach optimised design performance levels.

“While we continue to ship our native copper concentrates to our customer, we are confident that Rocklands will deliver the first shipment of sulphide copper concentrates on time as we ramp up towards full production.

“More significant revenues are expected to follow the commencement of bulk shipping and sale of our sulphide copper concentrates and we are determined to ensure this occurs as quickly and smoothly as possible, for the benefit of all stakeholders,” he said.