[ferro-alloys.com]Vancouver-based Copper Mountain's 2019 copper production dropped by 9% year on year to 72 million lb on a lower average feed grade and mining from lower recovery ore domains, the company said Tuesday.

"In the fourth quarter and during the early part of 2020, we are mining a small area of the reserve that is the finest mineralogy and lower associated recovery," chief operating officer Donald Strickland said during a call with investors.

"The majority of the reserve is coarse and medium-grain mineralogy, while a very small part of our reserve in the middle of the main pit is of finer mineralogy."

"We are mining in this area in Q4, and that is the reason for the lower recovery," he added.

The company's copper production in the fourth quarter fell to 18.6 million lb from 20.6 million lb in the year-ago quarter.

Copper Mountain's Q4 gold production also slipped, to 6,200 oz from 8,124 oz in Q4 2018. Full-year gold output decreased 5% year on year to 26,747 oz.

Strickland said the lower production met guidance as the lower-grade ore regions were anticipated.

Copper Mountain reported a Q4 net loss of C$35.7 million ($26.9 million) on revenue of C$73.7 million compared with a C$19 million loss on C$73.1 million in revenue in Q4 2018.

The company also posted a full-year net loss, of C$25.9 million on sales of C$288.5 million, compared with a C$26.9 million loss on C$296 million sales in 2018.

HIGHER COPPER PRODUCTION OUTLOOK

Copper Mountain expects its copper output to substantially increase to at least 86 million lb in 2020 and at least 88 million lb in 2021 due to higher grades at the main pit of its British Columbia mine, according to a statement released by the company Tuesday.

"We remain on plan to expose higher-grade ore for 2020 and 2021 production as per our guidance," Strickland told investors. "The grade is scheduled to increase throughout 2020 as we access more high-grade ore, resulting in production more weighted towards the second half of the year."

Copper Mountain said its ongoing mill expansion at the mine will also improve copper recovery to boost production.

"We have expanded the copper concentrate filtering capacity to handle the higher scheduled copper production in 2020 and 2021," Strickland said. "We are now focused on installation of the direct flotation reactors as a second flotation cleaner by mid-2020, which will provide capacity and stability to the cleaner circuit, supporting a higher copper concentrate grade."

As part of the expansion, Copper Mountain plans to commission a third ball mill at the mine by the end of 2020 to obtain finer ore grades and improve copper recovery, raising daily throughput at the mill to 45,000 mt from the previous 40,000 mt.

The miner is also conducting an additional expansion study to further increase ore throughput at the mill beyond 2020.

"We're working on a further expansion study, designed to test increased production at the copper mine to between 60,000 mt and 70,000 mt per day from the 45,000 mt per day, post-completion of the current mill expansion," CEO Gil Clausen said during the call. "We expect to announce results of this study before the end of this year."

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]