MIM says strong demand for Alumbrera output
biz.yahoo.com
SYDNEY, March 30 (Reuters) - MIM Holdings Ltd said on Monday that demand for copper concentrate exceeds what the company can produce at its Alumbrera project in Argentina.
''The demand for copper concentrates is above what we can produce,'' said Peter Freund, managing director of Minera Alumbrera Ltd.
Minera Alumbrera Ltd is the manager of the Alumbrera copper gold project which is 50 percent owned and operated by MIM.
''All of the smelting industry we supply are working flat out,'' Freund told Reuters.
Freund said that Alumbrera supplies copper concentrates smelters in Brazil, Spain, Canada, India, Finland, Germany, South Korea and Japan.
''One of the ironies is that we can't produce enough for people in the market to take,'' Freund said.
Another partner, 25 percent owned North Ltd (NBH.AX), said earlier this month that the recently-commissioned copper/gold project was producing copper at a cash cost of about 38 to 40 U.S. cents per pound.
Canada's Rio Algom Ltd owns the remaining 25 percent.
Alumbrera milled 4.05 million tonnes of ore in the three months to February 28, producing 101,817 wet tonnes of concentrate at a copper head grade of 0.88 percent and with 1.04 grams of gold per tonne.
The project is expected to produce an average of 180,000 tonnes of copper and 640,000 ounces of gold a year over 20 years.
Built at a cost of US$1.2 billion, the project was hit by cost overruns and was the subject of discouraging broker reports after an analysts' site visit in December last year.
MIM shares were dumped soon after the analysts meeting, with some analysts critical of its management of Alumbrera. |
