Photo by: TVI Pacific
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed TVI Pacific on Tuesday said its Philippine operating affiliate TVI Resource Development (TVIRD) had completed its thirty-eight shipment of copper concentrate produced at the Canatuan mine on the island of Mindanao, on December 6, and had started preparations to close and rehabilitate the mine.
The shipment of 5 567 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of copper concentrate left the port of Santa Maria in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, bound to offtake partner MRI Trading (MRI).
TVIRD expected to earn gross revenue of about $9.9-million from MRI for the shipment, pending final assay and price adjustments. Remaining in inventory was about 2 469 dmt of copper concentrate.
Based on current average daily mill throughput of about 3 200 t/d, preparations for closure of the Canatuan operations had started, and openpit mining was expected to end by December 30, while mill processing and concentrate shipments were expected to continue into the first quarter of 2014.
TVI had completed one copper shipment and one zinc shipment from the mine during the third quarter, as planned, and another during the fourth quarter. The thirty-seventh copper shipment of concentrate completed loading on September 12, and the sixth shipment of zinc concentrate was completed July 27.
In its management's discussion and analysis for the nine months ended September 30, TVI said the shipping and refining costs would likely remain higher than expected owing to the elevated minor penalty element levels in the copper concentrate. With mining expected to be complete by year-end, preparations to close the operation had started.
TVIRD is also advancing its Balabag gold/silver epithermal project, about 75 km east-north east of the Canatuan mine.