Provides Zinc Circuit Update
completed its fourteenth shipment of copper concentrates produced at the Canatuan Mine on May 5, 2010.
• Gross revenue expected from fourteenth shipment US$9.1 million
• Gross revenue year to date US$35.3 million
• Copper concentrates shipped year to date 20,799 dmt
As previously discussed, mining has progressed into the portion of the ore body containing increased amounts of zinc. In advance of the availability and commissioning of the zinc circuit, the mill encountered difficulties in increasing the copper grade in the copper concentrate being produced, without increasing the zinc content of the concentrate. Accordingly, the company elected to maintain the previous mill plan of producing larger quantities of copper concentrate at a grade of around 19-20% copper for this shipment, achieving roughly equivalent quantities of payable metal.
The concentrates were shipped from the TVIRD warehouse facility at Santa Maria Port in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, in accordance with the offtake arrangement previously entered into between TVIRD and MRI Trading AG (“MRI”). TVIRD expects to earn gross revenues of US$9.1 million from MRI for 5,285 dry metric tonnes (“dmt”) of copper concentrates.
The offtake agreement provides that MRI will purchase all of the copper concentrates produced at Canatuan over the anticipated life of the sulphide operation. After the fourteenth shipment, inventory of about 1,300 dmt remained in the warehouse.
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The offloading ship, the MV Viet Long, departing from the coast of Zamboanga del Norte bound for China with TVIRD’s cargo of copper concentrates
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Zinc Circuit Update
The newly installed zinc flotation circuit was powered up on schedule on April 30 and is undergoing plant debugging as the first step in commissioning. Additional elements of the zinc separation and concentrate production process will be added in the coming weeks as the company continues with the zinc circuit commissioning. The company anticipates that the commissioning process could take up to three months as is typical in such operations and similar to the company’s experience with the copper circuit.
In the meantime, the company’s objective is to produce copper concentrate such that payable metal quantities will be constant and grade and shipment scheduling will be adjusted in accordance with zinc separation performance. The company’s plan is to achieve an increase in copper concentrate grade to the 25% level as soon as practicable.