Finders: Wetar copper project approaching nameplate capacity

By Romel S. Gurky

ASX-listed Finders Resources Limited announced Friday that its recently commissioned 25,000 tons per annum (tpa) copper cathode SX- EW plant in Indonesia?s Maluku Province has now plated over 2,800 tons of LME Grade A copper cathode with the production ramp up reaching over 87 percent of nameplate capacity for five continuous days as part of the planned ramp up program.

?Operations staff are now focused on achieving and maintaining nameplate production by the end of September,? Finders said in a statement.

The company said ore production from the open pit continues to steadily increase ensuring a critical mass of material is stacked for maintaining solution inventory to the plant for efficient operation at nameplate capacity.

It added that the neutralization plant, which is the last major plant item constructed for the expansion project, has now been successfully commissioned.

Managing Director Barry Cahill commented: ?With copper cathode production rapidly approaching nameplate capacity and the neutralisation plant successfully commissioned, we now look forward to directing our efforts towards growing the mine life through our resource expansion drilling and exploration initiatives.?

Finders also operates a 3,000 tpa SX-EW plant on Wetar Island, Maluku. Once the second SX-EW plant reaches nameplate capacity, the company will have combined annual capacity of 28,000 tpa.

Finders is the operator of the Wetar Copper Project (72% interest) and the Ojolali Gold-Silver Project (72% interest) both located in Indonesia.

The Wetar Copper Project comprises the development, open pit mining and processing of the high-grade sulphide deposits at Kali Kuning and Lerokis located within 3 kilometers of the coast on Wetar Island. The project benefits from having existing infrastructure in place, particularly a wharf, camp and roads and partially pre-stripped copper ore bodies from a prior gold mining era.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak