ZCI's African Copper production rises 47% in Q3

Releasing its production report for the third quarter of fiscal 2013‚ ZCI group CEO Tom Kamwendo expressed satisfaction with the continued improvements being made at African Copper.

Jordan Soko‚ Acting Chief Executive of African Copper‚ said the company was on track to achieve record copper production in fiscal 2013.

"Our operations teams continue to successfully execute our mine plans and have done a great job to increase throughput‚ efficiencies and plant utilization. The focus now is to exceed these levels as we move into increasing proportions of sulphide ore at Thakadu and to prove up additional resources from our strong portfolio of appraisal and exploration prospects."

All of the ore processed at the Mowana facilities during the last three quarters was sourced from the higher grade Thakadu Mine. Ore processed in the third quarter and concentrate produced were slightly lower than the second quarter as a result of mining a lower grade split orebody from the western end of the Thakadu pit in the third quarter‚ the company noted.

Copper recovery at the plant has continued to benefit from the increasing proportion of sulphide ore. In the three months reported below‚ the proportion of sulphide ore processed increased from 43% of the total in October‚ to 70% in November and 86% in December. Trucking operations from Thakadu to the Mowana Mine processing facilities‚ a distance of 70km‚ ran to plan throughout the quarter‚ it said.