Vancouver — With its Gibraltar copper mine in central British Columbia in full production and hitting its marks,
Strong copper and molybdenum prices pushed quarterly revenue to $32.2 million, surpassing forecasts by 16%.
Taseko benefited from the first full quarter of molybdenum production at Gibraltar, which contributed $7.9 million as byproduct credits. The circuit was brought on-stream midway through the previous quarter.
Quarterly copper production of 15.5 million lbs. came in at about 4% below forecasts, owing to longer distances for ore and waste haulage.
Copper recovery dropped to 80.8%, from 82.6% last year, due to increased supergene ore being fed to the mill. Total cash costs were pegged at US$1.02 per lb. copper (net of molybdenum credits), 25% of which is attributable to concentrate transportation, smelting and refining costs.
Molybdenum output of 177,600 lbs. fell 8% short of forecasts, partly due to lower recovery levels caused by variations in ore.
A decision on Taseko’s planned hydrometallurgical refinery at Gibraltar, which would produce cathode copper and mitigate the current transportation, smelting and refining costs, is anticipated by the end of 2005.
The favoured refinery option is the Cominco Engineering Services technology, which would cost about $110 million. The investment could save up to 20 per lb. copper in operating costs by eliminating transportation expenses. Construction would begin in mid-2006.
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