Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – Oyu Tolgoi today announced its production report for the first quarter of 2015.
Concentrate production in Q1’15 decreased approximately 30 per cent over Q4’14 driven by resource sequence and therefore impacted by lower mill head grades as well as a planned maintenance and improvement shutdowns. The shutdown was completed on time and with no injuries. Concentrate sales for the quarter exceeded production, despite slowing during the Lunar New Year when border and customs operations were closed for an extended period.
Additionally, Oyu Tolgoi in Q1 paid US$66.4 million in taxes for the quarter, and spent US$78.3 million on national procurement in the same period, of which US$14.1 million was spent with suppliers in the South Gobi region.
Andrew Woodley, President and CEO of Oyu Tolgoi, said: “Our drive to make a step-change in our productivity, at every stage of the value chain, remains critical to achieving sustainable growth and profitability in today’s dynamic market. Over Q1, despite planned maintenance, resource sequence and other external factors, we have safely increased productivity at the mine and the concentrator and will continue to progress improvements over the course of 2015.”
Material mined in Q1’15 increased approximately 16 per cent over Q4’14 mainly due to improvements driven by a range of productivity initiatives in the open pit, partially offset by longer haul distances. Head grades declined in Q1’15 as high-grade material from the open pit was largely processed in Q4’14.
Open pit development for 2015 is proceeding to schedule with higher-grade material expected to be processed by the concentrator starting in Q2’15. Concentrator milling rates increased through Q1’15 as improvements started to take effect, particularly in the pebble crushing circuit.
As previously disclosed, production distribution for the current year is expected to be relatively similar to 2014, with production levels significantly higher in the second half of 2015. Based on the current mine schedule, Oyu Tolgoi is expected to produce 175,000 to 195,000 tonnes of copper and 600,000 to 700,000 ounces of gold in concentrates in 2015.
Oyu Tolgoi Production Data Q1 2015
All data represents full production and sales on a 100 per cent basis
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.