Canada-based SRHI Inc’s copper production guidance at its 70pc-owned Minera Tres Valles (MTV) Copper Project in Chile for 2021 is between 6,000mt and 7,000mt, the company announced in a statement.
The copper mine is located in Chile’s Salamanca region. The company has recently started copper production from its Don Gabriel open-pit mine. Along with that, it is also expecting ore from third-party miners and ENAMI, Chile’s national mining enterprise.
The company said that it is also focusing on the construction and expansion at the Papomono mine which will be completed in early 2022.
Outlook
The company said that 2021 will be an exciting year on many fronts – vaccine deployment with the hope of returning to normality, the construction and development of Papomono, a strengthening copper price environment, and the continued increase in demand for electric vehicles.
It said that copper production for 2021 is expected to begin slowly as copper in ore processed from the recent restart of operations works its way through the leaching process before converting to copper cathodes.
The company informed its processing facility will continue to operate below its annual capacity of 18,500mt of copper cathodes, resulting in higher unit costs until production from the Papomono mine begins in early 2022.
It further added that by the end of 2022, copper production is expected to increase by 50pc as compared to the expected output in 2021, with unit costs meaningfully lower as capacity increases and the copper grade becomes higher after the Papomono mine enters production.