JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Copper producer Weatherly International has exceeded its guidance for the September quarter by 3%, delivering 3 554 t of copper cathode.

This represented around 84% of nameplate production at the company’s Tschudi mine, in Namibia, which achieved commercial production status from October 1.

“The ramp-up at Tschudi continues ahead of schedule and, by year-end, we will be running at design capacity,” commented CEO Craig Thomas, adding that the lift in September output had also driven a 4% increase in the company’s full-year guidance to 10 400 t of copper cathode.

During Tschudi’s operational ramp-up, the company also had the opportunity to stress test various parts of the Tschudi heap leach solvent-extraction and electrowinning plant to gather large quantities of performance data on the heap leach and plant performance. 

Based on this data, the company determined that the infrastructure could be upgraded from a capacity of between 17 000 t/y and 20 000 t/y of copper cathode – an 18% increase in production rates – at a cost of $1.2-million.
 
“Once the company has completed the reserve update exercise mentioned above, mining and processing schedule options will be evaluated to quantify the potential incremental financial benefits of production expansion to 20 000 t/y,” Weatherly noted in a statement.

The company was, meanwhile,  updating resource and reserve estimations for Tschudi, which would be combined with all mining and processing experience to produce updated mining and processing schedules. 

This work would be complete in November and, at that stage, the company would publish revised resources and reserves, together with internal estimates for life-of-mine operating and capital costs.

Meanwhile, at the group’s Central Operations, mining and processing of ore at the Otjihase and Matchless underground mines were suspended over the quarter and the mines converted to project development status in light of the current market conditions for copper. 
 
“Negotiations have been successfully concluded with the trade union that represents affected employees, while the existing stocks of ore on surface have been treated and the underground mines and processing plant made safe and prepared for ongoing maintenance,” said the company.