7th Apr 2015 08:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - Central Asia Metals PLC Tuesday said it is on target to achieve its full year production guidance for 2015, and said the commissioning of its second recovery plant facility is ahead of schedule.
The miner operating in Kazakhstan and Mongolia reported production of 2,350 tonnes of copper in the first quarter of 2015, up from 1,905 tonnes produced in the same quarter a year earlier. All of the company's current production comes from the Kounrad dump leach, solvent extraction and electro-winning copper recovery plant in Kazakhstan.
The increase in production was largely due to the company expanding the boiler-house capacity to 14 megawatts, facilitating higher solution volume treatment rates during winter months, it said.
Central Asia Metals reiterated its full-year guidance, saying it is on track to produce 13,000 tonnes of copper in 2015.
Sales in the period rose to 2,223 tonnes from 1,771 tonnes a year earlier. All sales in the quarter were conducted through the take-off agreement with metals marketer Traxys Worldwide.
The company is currently completing a stage one expansion at the project which will increase the capacity of the project to 15,000 tonnes per year. Central Asia Metals said the expansion is "ahead of schedule" with construction work nearing completion.
At the end of April, the company will begin the commissioning of an additional dump leach, solvent extraction and electro-winning copper recovery plant at the project, it said.
"The commissioning of the additional dump leach, solvent extraction and electro-winning copper recovery plant facility is expected to start at the end of April 2015. Design and permitting procedures for the stage two expansion out to the western dumps continue as scheduled, with the ordering of equipment and materials expected to commence in late third quarter 2015 in preparation for site construction activity to start in the first quarter of 2016," said Central Asia Metals.
The company said it has produced a total of 30,000 tonnes of copper from the project since operations began at the end of April 2012.
Central Asia Metal shares were up 4.7% to 172.75 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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