Finders says copper cathode plant to reach nameplate capacity soon
Tuesday, October 18 2016 - 05:52 AM WIB
ASX-listed Finders Resources Limited said on Tuesday that its 25,000 t.p.a. copper cathode SX-EW plant at the Wetar Copper Project in Maluku Province has now plated over 4,800 tons of copper cathode with the production ramp up reaching the plant?s nameplate capacity of 25,000 t.p.a. copper cathode on a number of days.
In an update of the project, Finders said operations staff are now targeting to achieve a steady state production rate of 28,000 t.p.a. copper cathode over the coming weeks.
?Plant ramp up has now progressed past the usual fine tuning stages involving equipment performance, reagents addition and power variations. It was pleasing that during this phase all copper cathode was able to be sold at or about LME copper price including a proportion as LME grade A with premium. A majority of the copper cathode now produced is LME Grade A and this will continue to improve as the plant approaches steady state operation,? the statement said.
Finders said cathode daily production levels have been steadily increasing to be now regularly within 10 percent of full production. Parts of the SX-EW plant have at times achieved and even exceeded their required operating parameters. During the coming weeks it is anticipated that this will occur more regularly until full production is achieved.
Finders said it expects that the Wetar Project will be operating at full capacity during the December 2016 quarter, as indicated in the following graph, at which time there will be more visibility on the actual financial metrics of the project including production costs.
Ore mining continues to perform as expected with a change to an emulsion blasting product delivering improved fragmentation which in turn has had a positive effect on the crush and stack rate from the crushing circuits.
The neutralisation plant is currently being run on a campaign basis, as required by the build up of acid levels in the circuit.
Managing Director Barry Cahill commented: ?It has been a very pleasing effort from site management now commencing to achieve nameplate production from the 25,000 tons SX-EW plant. Investors can now look forward to more positive news in the coming weeks as production is stabilized, completing the transformation of Finders to a significant and profitable copper cathode producer.?
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak