Vancouver, British Columbia – October 8, 2013 – Copper Mountain Mining Corporation (TSX: CUM) (the “Company” or “Copper Mountain”) announces production results for the third quarter of 2013 from the Copper Mountain mine located in southern British Columbia.
The mine had record copper production for the quarter and exited the quarter on a positive note with September’s copper production totaling 6.8 million pounds. Production for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 totaled 17.7 million pounds of copper, 6,417 ounces of gold, and 79,290 ounces of silver. Production improvements can be attributed to the increased average mill throughput rate made possible with the short term secondary crushing strategies that have been implemented and improved in late July. These short term strategies include: utilizing an increased powder factor in the blasting in the mine to create more fines in the ore; continuing with a contract portable crusher at the primary crusher to crush plus 5,000 tpd of ore to minus two inches; and the introduction of the Company’s own small portable crusher that was purchased and installed at the coarse ore stockpile during the quarter. The combination of these three activities is designed to create between 12,000 tpd and 13,000 tpd of minus two inch ore feed for the SAG mill. In September the average daily throughput of the SAG mill was 31,925 tpd with an average of 7,600 tpd minus 2 inch crushed product from the portable crushers. Mill availability at 94.2% for the month was a positive contribution to the 89.3% average for the quarter.
Mill throughput during the quarter improved to an average of 29,130 tpd compared to 26,000 for the first half of 2013, an increase of 12%. The mill processed a total 2.7 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.344 % copper during the quarter as compared to 2.5 million tonnes of ore for the three months ended June 2013. Mill recoveries for the third quarter were 87% as compared to 85% for the first half of 2013.
Mining activities continued in both the Pit 2 and Pit 3 areas on plan and averaged approximately 154,300 tonnes per day mined. During the quarter a total of 14.0 million tonnes of material was mined, including 3.9 million tonnes of ore and 9.4 million tonnes of waste. The projected life of mine strip ratio is 2 to 1 but higher in the early years.
For the third quarter ended September 30, 2013 the mine shipped 32,840 wmt of concentrate containing approximately 16.3 million pounds of copper, 5,967 ounces of gold, and 69,427 ounces of silver generating an estimated $61.8 million in gross revenue.
All production figures are reported on a 100 percent basis.