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Carrapateena produces first concentrate

20th December 2019

By: Esmarie Iannucci

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

     

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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner Oz Minerals has produced the first saleable copper/gold concentrate into the pre-filter press feed tank at its Carrapateena project, in South Australia.

The miner on Friday said that the concentrate production milestone was met within the fourth quarter schedule mapped out at the project approval in 2017.


“The milestone represents the collaboration, support and hard work of a great many people including our operations and construction teams, and the large number of contractors involved,” said CEO Andrew Cole.

Sufficient saleable concentrate is expected to be produced to the filter feed tank over the coming days to then complete first concentrate press. The miner noted that over 280 000 t of development ore has been stockpiled on the surface, as the mine now entered a faster ramp-up towards full throughput rates by the end of 2020, dependent on the cave performing as expected.

“Our key operational focus remains on underground development as we ramp-up the mine. The streamlined mine design with an expanded footprint will improve cave establishment, reduce risk during the ramp-up phase and may enable future annual throughput expansion opportunities as we continue to assess options to expand capacity above 4.25-million tonnes annually.”


Cole noted that while first saleable concentrate was announced on Friday, Oz has already started a block cave expansion scoping study, looking at increasing both the life and production capacity of Carrapateena from 2025.

As the ramp-up progresses, production for 2020 is expected to range between 20 000 t and 25 000 t of copper and between 35 000 oz and 40 000 oz of gold, at a full year C1 cost of between $1.80/lb and $2/lb. Due to the fixed cost nature of the mine, unit costs will be higher in the first half of the year, and will move to lower in the second half, inline with production ramp up.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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