TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-listed Katanga Mining, which has two copper/cobalt operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Monday said intermittent power supply issues had resulted in a total of 1 609 hours, or about 67 days, of lost production.
However, the company said the commissioning in mid-December of a convertor and a synchronous condenser had reduced power disruptions and, in the medium-to-long term, improvements in infrastructure as a result of its power project were expected to improve the reliability and stability of electricity supply in general.
During 2012, the company mined 22% more ore year-on-year, at 5.54-million tons of ore grading 4.12% copper, resulting in 228 606 t of contained copper in the mined ore.
Katanga reported a 13% increase in ore milled at the Kamoto concentrator during 2012, which was a record at 4.61-million tons and an increase of 13% over the previous year.
Despite the power availability issues, copper produced in metal and concentrate for 2012 totalled a record 92 963 t, an increase of 2% when compared with 2011. Cobalt production totalled 2 129 t in the year, a decrease of 13% compared with 2011.
The company said it expected the mechanical completion of the updated Phase 4 expansion to be complete by the third quarter, which would enable Katanga to increase the total processing capacity, as well as upgrade the quality of copper produced.
The first phase of the feasibility study for the potential T17 underground mine is also expected to be complete during the second quarter. This would potentially allow for the exploitation of additional T17 mineral resources below the bottom of the current openpit, using underground mining techniques.
The company’s shares declined by 2.38% in value to 82 Canadian cents apiece on the TSX on Monday.