African copper record output drop
Keikantse Lesemela | Thursday August 21, 2014 11:30
In the update for the half-year ended June 30, 2014, the Botswana Stock Exchange listed copper exploration and production mine, said the records indicates that the volume of the copper processed decreased by 6.4 percent to 2, 703 billion tonnes.
Although the company recorded nine percent increase in the copper recovery rate to 92.6 percent for the financial year 2015, the recovery rate for the month of June decreased by 7.2 percent to 87.2 percent.
However, during the three months ended June 2014, ore mined from Thakadu pit continued to be affected by the previous mining contractor’s low levels of wastage stripping. Consequently, ore processed only increased marginally to 169 565 Mt in the fourth quarter of 2014.
However, ore processed continues to be affected by the poor quality ore from Thakadu pit due to the backlog wastage stripping required. In its statement, the company said plant utilisation and throughput continued to be affected during the first quarter of the 2015 financial year by lack of ore available to be transported from Thakadu and the time taken to accumulate sufficient ore for crushing.
“When ore was available from Thakadu, transportation occurred with no problems. Ore processed fluctuated during the current quarter and copper in concentrate produced increased to 2, 703 from 2,515 million tonnes during the fourth quarter of financial year 2014, primarily due to improved ore grade during April and May 2014,” reads the statement.
In his comment, Jordan Soko, African Copper, acting chief executive said the new mining contractor that commenced operations in April 2014 is beginning to reduce this backlog. Improved ore production from the Thakadu pit is expected in the coming quarter.
“We are pleased with the mining progress that Diesel Power is making at the Thakadu Pit. With improved ore production from Thakadu and more stable operating conditions at the Mowana plant, we are all well positioned to increase production levels for the remainder of our financial year,” he said.