Capstone Mining plans to ramp up its copper production by 40pc by the end of the year, after completing the modernization of its Pinto Valley mine in Arizona. The miner also intends to reduce its costs by 20pc, thanks to low-cost operations at its Cozamin mine in Zacatecas, Mexico.
At Cozamin, Capstone is gradually moving toward processing 1.5mn mt of copper ore per year. The mine is also slated to produce around 28,000mt of copper concentrate, 70pc more compared to 2019.
The Canadian miner produced 51,029mt of copper in January-September, down 5pc from 53,569mt in the same period last year. In the third quarter, copper output stood at 17,463mt, falling short by 1.2pc over the preceding quarter. The decline was attributed to scheduled maintenance at the Pinto mine.
Copper sales fell in the first nine months by 3.6pc to 49,033mt, compared with 50,847mt in the same period last year. In Q3 2020 however, sales increased by 27pc to 18,052mt while the average realized copper price rose by 61¢/lb to $3.13/lb in the quarter.
Capstone recorded a revenue of $130.5mn in Q3 2020, compared with $82.9mn in the preceding quarter. It posted a net profit of $2.3mn in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $10.7bn in Q2 2020.