PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Production from the DeGrussa mine, in Western Australia, declined slightly in the March quarter on the back of a planned eight-day shutdown.
Copper/gold miner Sandfire Resources reported on Thursday that copper production during the March quarter reached 16 095 t, compared with the 17 642 t delivered in the previous quarter, while gold production reached 9 080 oz, compared with the 9 420 oz produced in the previous quarter.
During the quarter under review, production from the Conductor 4 orebody started, while production from the Conductor 5 orebody was planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Sandfire told shareholders on Thursday that the mine plan for the DeGrussa project had confirmed that underground mine production would continue at the current rate of 1.6-million tonnes a year, with development to continue at around 6 000 m during 2017, reducing to 3 000 m in 2018, and to less than 1 000 m a year for the remainder of the mine plan until 2021.
For the full 2016, Sandfire has maintained its production output of between 65 000 t and 68 000 t of copper, and between 35 000 oz and 40 000 oz of gold, while C1 cash operating costs were expected to reach the lower end of between $0.95/lb and $1.05/lb.