LONDON (Alliance News) - Atalaya Mining PLC Friday provided shareholders with good news by declaring commercial operations at the Riotinto copper project in Spain will begin at the start of next month.
Atalaya achieved first production from the project back in July last year and was set to kick-start commercial production ahead of schedule in January, but said Friday it will now commence on February 1.
Commercial production has been declared after the miner successfully completed the commissioning and ramp-up of the phase one expansion at the project. Recent plant performance tests have reported over 85% of planned throughput capacity while maintaining copper recoveries of above 80% and concentrate grades of approximately 20% copper.
Significantly, the miner also announced plans to consolidate the phase one and phase two expansion projects into a single project, which will lead to capital savings and an acceleration in development.
Importantly, as this will accelerate the expansion project, the company may require additional funding.
"In an effort to maximise synergies between the phase one expansion project to 7.5 million tonnes per annum and phase two expansion project to 9.5 million tonnes, the company has decided to consolidate both expansion projects into a single project," said Atalaya.
"Consequently, the company expects to report further capital savings and shorter delivery schedules which will dictate the additional funding needs, if applicable, that are being evaluated by the company on an ongoing basis," it added.
The enlarged expansion project is 100% complete and procurement is 92% complete. All efforts are now concentrated on site construction activities that are 42% complete. Originally, when the expansion project was split into two phases, Atalaya was planning on commissioning the project in the middle of 2016, but said this will now occur sooner.
"We are working towards continuous improvement in the operations in the coming months and believe that 2016 will represent a year of operational delivery for Atalaya Mining," said Chief Executive Alberto Lavandeira.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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