[miningmx.com] — PALABORA MINING COMPANY LIMITED, which
operates South Africa’s largest copper mine, on Wednesday reported a 6%
increase in quarter-on-quarter copper concentrate production in the quarter
to end September.
Releasing an operations review for the third quarter, the company said
it produced 61 100 tonnes in the September quarter compared to 57 900 tonnes
in the June quarter.
Production was, however, 1% lower than the 61 800 tonnes produced in the
September quarter last year.
Copper in concentrate production at 18 900 tonnes was 5% higher than the
18 000 tonnes in the June quarter but was 1% lower that the 19 300 tonnes
produced in the September quarter 2009.
The quarterly increase in copper concentrate production was attributed
to process control improvements on the automill circuit while the increase
in copper in concentrate production was due to production improvements on
the automill circuit as well utilisation of copper thickeners inventory.
Copper concentrate production in the nine months to end September was,
however, 12% lower at 205 000 tonnes from 180 800 tonnes as was copper in
concentrate production, which was 55 300 tonnes compared to 62 500 tonnes.
The company said the drop in copper concentrate production for the
nine months was due to toll milling of non-copper bearing material.
Toll milling of low head grade copper material ceased towards the end of
the second quarter in 2010.
The new concentrate smelted was 3% higher at 61 400 tonnes than the
previous quarter’s 59 600 tonnes and 5% higher than the 58 500 tonnes
produced in the corresponding period in 2009.
This quarterly increase was attributable to the implementation of
improvement processes in the smelter operations and to the full availability
of Wolff cranes.
New anode production was 3% lower than the previous quarter but 14%
higher than the corresponding period in 2009 with the drop in quarterly
production attributable to the acid plant shut-down in July for annual
maintenance.
New anode production was also lower for the first nine months of 2010
due to on-going smelter maintenance, a shutdown associated with the acid
plant and reverb bath rebuild in July.
Refined copper production was 7% higher at 14 700 tonnes than the 13 800
tonnes produced in the previous quarter and the corresponding period in
2009.
The increase was attributed to utilising anode inventory from the
previous quarter.
Magnetite production during the quarter was 2% lower than the previous
quarter and 1% higher than the corresponding period in 2009 while magnetite
production increased for the first 9 months of 2010 due to increased feed in
the magnetite separation plant and increased reclamation rates.
Palabora said magnetite sales for the fourth quarter were, however,
expected to be adversely affected due to the Brakspruit rail bridge
collapse.
The bridge was destroyed when a fully-loaded derailed at the end of
September.
The rail line is the link between the Palabora mining operations and the
ports of Richards Bay and Maputo.
Vermiculite production was 10% higher than the previous quarter and 5%
higher than the corresponding period in 2009 with improved production due to
an increase in fine and superfine grades which contributed 4.0% to the
overall production.
