Peruvian poly-metallic producer Minera El Brocal increased copper and zinc output in the third quarter after ramping up a $473 million expansion of its concentrator plant, the company said Friday.
Copper-concentrates production jumped 45% to 47,274 mt in the quarter, while zinc rose 8% to 27,824 mt, and lead dropped 27% to 5,638 mt, Lima-based El Brocal said in a corporate filing to the Lima Stock Exchange. The company, which did not report silver production, treated 1.68 million mt of ore, a 25% increase.
Parent company Buenaventura set 2016 production guidance for the unit at 60,000-70,000 mt of zinc and 35,000-45,000 mt of copper fine content.
Fine copper and gold sales both jumped by half to 11,343 mt and 2,447 oz in the quarter, respectively, while zinc sales gained 17% to 11,351 mt and lead climbed 7% to 2,606 mt, El Brocal said. Silver sales dropped 40% to 254,549 oz, it said.
El Brocal sold copper at $4,756/mt in the third quarter, down 10% from a year earlier, while zinc rose 23% to $2,260/mt and lead gained 13% to $1,934/mt, the company said. Silver prices rebounded 15% to $19.40/oz and gold rose 18% to US$1,332/oz.
The company trimmed its losses to $16.2 million in the third quarter compared with a $19 million loss a year earlier, due to higher sales and lower operating costs. Sales rose 63% to $51.7 million in the quarter from $31.7 million a year earlier.
El Brocal produced 53,319 mt of zinc, 3.7 million oz of silver and 32,061 mt of copper in 2015, according to Buenaventura's website. Peru is the world's third-largest copper and zinc producer and second-ranked in silver.
