Preliminary Lumwana Production Results for 2nd Quarter 2010
Publishes Preliminary Lumwana Production Results for 2nd Quarter 2010
TORONTO, ON, July 12, 2010 : Equinox Minerals Limited (TSX and ASX: EQN) (“Equinox” or the “Company”) announced today its preliminary production results for the quarter ended June 30, 2010 (“Q2-2010”) from its 100% owned Lumwana Copper Mine (“Lumwana”) in Zambia.
Production performance at Lumwana continued to improve in Q2-2010 with a record 43,835 tonnes of copper (97 million pounds) produced in concentrate. Production for the first half of 2010 now stands at 74,306 tonnes of copper (164 million pounds) in concentrate and the Company is maintaining its guidance for 2010 of 135,000 tonnes of copper production.
Record ore mined (5.09mt), ore milled (4.57mt), head grade (1.02%) and copper recovery (94%) resulted in the production of 43,835 tonnes of copper, 44% higher than the previous quarter and 80% higher than the corresponding quarter in 2009. Although still impacted by some wet weather early in Q2-2010, total material moved was 26.6mt representing an annualized rate in excess of 100mt, while ore mined exceeded 5mt (equivalent to 20mtpa) for the first time.
Lumwana Mine Production Statistics
Production
Statistic Measure Q2 2010 Q1 2010 Q4 2009 Q3 2009 Q2 2009 Q1 2009
Total material movement Mt 26.60 14.99 22.23 29.30 20.80 8.88
Ore mined Mt 5.09 3.09 4.20 4.02 3.03 1.84
Ore processed Mt 4.57 3.59 3.96 3.82 3.03 2.88
Head grade Cu % 1.02 0.93 0.94 0.92 0.98 0.93
Copper recovery Cu % 94 92 93 80 82 83
Concentrate grade Cu % 44 44 46 47 39 39
Copper in concentrate Tonnes 43,835 30,471 34,626 28,111 24,413 22,263
Copper in concentrate M lbs 96.61 67.18 76.33 61.97 53.82 49.08
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. More efficient and productive mining has resulted from the opening up of these additional stages where improved mine planning practices utilizing longer working faces, larger blasts and higher benches markedly improved results. Most of the ore mined was still sourced from the higher grade Starter Pit over the quarter, but this will shift to the new stages over the remainder of the year resulting in lower grade feed to the mill.
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. Two of the five new Hitachi EH-4500 trucks have been commissioned over the last few weeks, with assembly of the other three expected to be completed progressively over Q3-2010. At times, the shovels were truck limited, with longer waste hauls while lifting the tailings dam, but this should reduce as the lift finishes in Q3-2010 and the five new trucks become available.
The mill and crusher had a planned six day shutdown in May, but produced at rates of close to 20 Mtpa in April and June. The primary constraint is now the crushing circuit and plans are underway to improve utilization, availability and feed rates to the crusher in the third quarter. Very little transitional ore was treated during Q2-2010 resulting in record recoveries of 94%. It is expected that some transition ore will need to be treated over the remainder of the year and this will see lower recoveries over the second half of 2010.
In addition to the 5.09 million tonnes of copper ore mined during the quarter, mining of the uranium zones at Valeria South and Valeria North within the Malundwe pit continued during the quarter with 1.15 million tonnes of uranium-copper ore mined. The Lumwana uranium-copper ore stockpile on the ROM pad has increased to 4.20 million tonnes grading 924 ppm uranium and 0.8% copper. This uranium-copper ore is being diverted away from the copper concentrator to stockpiles and is being classified and expensed as ‘waste’ to the copper project. This uranium-copper ore stockpile may be treated at a later date, if and when the Company builds a uranium plant.
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.”
Craig R. Williams - President & Chief Executive Officer
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