PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lower ore grades pushed copper output at Sandfire Resources' DeGrussa mine lower to 16 638 t in the three months to September, compared with the 18 637 t produced in the June quarter.
Ore grades declined from 5.05% in the June quarter to 4.7% in the quarter under review.
A further 7 885 oz of gold was also produced during the quarter.
Mill throughput for the quarter reached around 1.6-million tonnes a year and 387 864 t of ore was milled. Production during the quarter was affected by a planned eight-day shutdown of the mill to reline the mill and refurbish the thickener tanks and the concentrate filter.
Looking ahead at the full 2016, Sandfire was targeting copper production of between 65 000 t and 68 000 t, while gold production would reach between 35 000 oz and 40 000 oz.
Headline C1 cash costs were expected to range between $0.95/lb and $1.05/lb.