Finders expects lower copper cathode production
Saturday, November 18 2017 - 01:43 AM WIB
ASX-listed Finders Resources Limited said it expected lower copper cathode production in the upcoming December quarter of this year than previously anticipated at its Wetar Copper Project in Indonesia?s Maluku Province due to temporary shutdown of a production facility. Full-year output is also now expected to be lower than previous forecast.
?Forecast copper cathode production for the December 2017 quarter is now estimated to be between 4,000 to 5,000 tons, at a C1 cost of between US$1.40/lb to $1.80/lb, for an EBITDA of between $5 million to US$15 million at current copper prices,? Finders said in a statement on Friday.
The company added that the current full year to December 31, 2017 production forecast is now 23,000 to 24,000 tons of copper cathode at a C1 cost of between $1.15 and $1.25/lb, for an EBITDA of between US$70 million to US$80 million at current copper prices.
Late in October, Finders said that forecast copper cathode production for the December 2017 quarter was estimated at between 5,700 to 6,000 tons at a C1 cost of between $1.15/lb to $1.25/lb for an EBITDA of ~$20 million at current copper prices.
Full-year production at the time was forecast at 24,500 to 25,000 tons of copper cathode at a C1 cost of between US$1.09 and US$1.11/lb.
As previously reported, Finder said the rehandling of old partially leached truck dump ore and relining of the KK03 leach pad are progressing through the December quarter as planned. The crushing of fresh ore has recently been restricted by a premature bearing failure to the jaw crusher. While the jaw crusher is expected to be operating again before the end of November, the failure has caused the supply of leached copper tonnes to be slower than previously anticipated. ?The return to June 2017 quarter production levels is now expected during the March 2018 quarter,? the company said.
?Site management is also using this opportunity to shut-down the 3kt SX-EW plant for refurbishment through November and into December 2017,? it added.
It should be noted that in a heap leach operation delays on stacking of fresh ore cause a temporary reduction to production rate but do not result in any overall loss of copper production, as the copper from fresh ore will leach once the crushing and stacking of this material resumes.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak