Equinox Minerals’ 100 percent-owned Lumwana copper mine in Zambia produced a record tonnage in the quarter to June, the company said yesterday.
It said 43, 835 tons of copper were produced in concentrate by the mine.
This was 44 percent higher than the previous quarter and 80 percent higher than the corresponding quarter last year.
Production for the first half of this year now stood at 74, 306 tons of copper in concentrate and the company was maintaining its guidance of 135, 000 tons of copper production this year.
Improvements in mobile equipment availability, equipment utilization and productivity all contributed to the improvement in material mined.
The improved utilization and productivity resulted from the Hitachi fleet moving into new pit stages to the north and the south of the Starter Pit; stages that had been stripped of oxide material by the light fleet over the prior two quarters.
The Company’s maintenance improvement program, undertaken in conjunction with Hitachi, has resulted in an improvement in equipment availability and the focus is now shifting to planned maintenance and better management of parts inventories.
Equinox President and Chief Executive Officer Craig Williams said that “production of 43,835 tonnes of copper for the quarter reflects a substantially improved performance in all major areas of the mine and is an outstanding result and a credit to the intense hard work put in by the Lumwana team to improve the productivity of operations.”
QFM
