The miner raised the production guidance for Kamoa-Kakula in 2022 from an initial range of 290 000 t to 340 000 t, following the successful ramp-up of Kamoa Copper’s Phase 2 concentrator plant.
“Kamoa-Kakula has firmly established a record of excellence during the development of Phase 1 and Phase 2 operations, which has led to an industry-leading growth profile in terms of copper production that will continue as we bring Phase 3 online,” said company executive co-chairperson Robert Friedland.
“Kamoa-Kakula also stands out among its peers as one of the few mining operations worldwide to strongly deliver on its original 2022 production guidance, which is a further testament to the team of engineers and contractors who commissioned the Phase 2 concentrator several months ahead of schedule.”
The mine reported 93 288 t of copper floated, which includes the contained copper still in the circuit that was floated but has not yet been filtered to produce a final concentrate.
It had a balance of about 5 670 t of copper in the circuit as of December 31, which will be filtered into a final concentrate once the debottlenecking programme is complete.
Meanwhile, Kamoa-Kakula set 2023 production guidance at between 390,000 and 430,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished