China’s Daye Non-Ferrous Metal Mining missed its refined copper output target by more than 10pc in Q1 2020.
In a filling to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company announced its copper cathode production was 10.5pc below plan, coming in at 18,200mt, due to the COVID-19 outbreak that impacted operations at its mine, which is located in the Hubei province—an area that had some of the highest COVID-19 cases and one of the longest lockdowns in the country.
The company reported a net loss of RMB 118mn ($16.6mn) in the first three months of 2020, but believe the failure is limited from a full-year perspective, now that it has resumed normal operations.
Daye was ordered by the Chinese government to shut down at all four of its mines during the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Three of these mines are located in the Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus outbreak and opened back up on March 20.
The company reported that these mines were back to full capacity by the end of April. The fourth mine in Xinjiang is currently only operating at half-capacity due to virus-related restrictions on personnel. Production is expected to return to normal in Xinjiang by the third week in May.
On May 12, Daye held groundbreaking ceremonies for a 400,000mt per year copper smelter in the city of Huangshi, bringing Daye’s annual capacity for smelting operations to up to 1mn mt, the company said in its filing.