African Copper Plc said it continued to see rising production over the period as it moves towards closer to achieving the intended level of steady state copper production.
The AIM/ BSE listed copper producer and exploration company stated in terms of copper produced in concentrate, production for the first and second quarters was 176 per cent and 53 per cent higher than the respective quarters from last year.
The company said in an update that total copper produced in concentrate was 1,812 tonnes, with record production levels achieved in August.
“The progressive improvements in production are attributable to a number of factors including increased mining flexibility at Mowana and Thakadu, increased ore delivery to the plant as a result of improved production at Thakadu, successful maintenance strategies at the secondary and tertiary crushers, higher availability of the mill and efficiency improvements at the filtration plant,” the company said.
Daily throughput at the filtration plant has increased from 80 tpd to between 160 and 200 tpd.
This was attributed to improved feed density as a result of changes made to the thickener underflow pumps; increased feed pressure as a result of enhanced feed valves, improved solid separation from better filter cloth aperture size control; and instalment of new filter press plates.
“I am happy to state that we have moved closer to achieving our intended level of steady state copper production,” Jordan Soko, Acting Chief Executive of African Copper Plc, said.
“These have been two progressively strong quarters for the Company, which have seen substantially increased production and numerous initiatives put in place to ensure the long term improvement of our mining activities. I look forward to informing the market of further updates in due course,” he added.
African Copper said increased recoveries are anticipated over the next two quarters as mining operations progressively move at Mowana from more oxidic areas to more supergene rich areas and at Thakadu towards sulphide mineralisation.
A number of plant upgrades are currently in progress and are planned for completion by the year end.
The upgrades include the installation of a new tertiary crusher. A new secondary crusher is planned for installation at the end of November. These crushers are expected to increase operational efficiency and increase throughput to the mill.
African Copper said the installation of column flotation cells is currently underway and is expected to remove impurities, specifically silica during flotation, resulting in a cleaner higher grade concentrate.
The installation of the Larox filter is planned during December to increase filtration efficiency, allowing higher throughput of concentrate with a lower moisture content.
