Canadian miner Copper Mountain intends to increase its daily ore throughput to 65,000mt/day by adding two processing mills at its namesake mine in British Columbia.
The existing two mills at the mine, process 40,000mt of ore per day. The miner will raise this capacity to 45,000mt/day after installing the third mill, which is under construction and expected to become operational in 2021. The company then plans to equip and commission a fourth mill by 2024, with a high-pressure grinding roll circuit to reduce operating costs while improving performance thanks to modernized machinery.
The Copper Mountain mine is slated to produce 48,000mt of copper every year, till the end of this decade, at a head-grade recovery rate of 85.4pc. The cost of the new machines is estimated at $204mn and will be included in the company’s 2021 Capex. The mine is estimated to hold about 1.07mn mt of copper concentrate.