[miningmx.com] – Metorex (MTX) said on Tuesday that for the quarter ended March 2011 its copper production was up by 8% to 13 344 tons and cobalt production increased 10% to 1 041 tons. Ruashi’s copper and cobalt production increased by 20% and 10% respectively.
CEO Terence Goodlace said the increased production was despite seasonally high rainfall and the installation of a new modified transformer at Ruashi during March 2011 which affected production for three days.
“Chibuluma continues to perform at planned levels of production. Sable throughput continues to be affected by a lack of third party ores,” he said.
Metorex had to install a new transformer at its Ruashi plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after technical problems hit output at the site last year.
The company raised its copper and cobalt reserves estimates, on Monday, pushing up its shares up around 3 percent.
Metorex said in March that with a busy project pipeline and potential for other brownfields expansion it seeks to more than double its current annual copper production of around 50 000 tonnes.
