Copper Mountain Projects Copper Output From B.C. Mine Near Last Year's Level

VANCOUVER — Copper Mountain Mining Corp. (TSX:CUM) says it plans to produce about 80 million pounds of copper from its flagship mine in southern British Columbia this year.

 

That would be slightly less than the 81 million pounds produced in 2014, along with 22,600 ounces of gold and 443,700 ounces of silver.

 

The Vancouver-based company — which owns 75 per cent of the Copper Mountain mine near Princeton, B.C. — didn't provide estimates on its production costs or realized price for copper.

 

Copper Mountain shares were among the most actively traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday, with more than 1.7 million traded during the morning. The stock was down six cents or nearly five per cent at $1.23.

 

During the third quarter, Copper Mountain finished a new $40-million secondary crusher that the company said would reduce costs. It said Monday the new crusher has been operating at its designed capacity and averaged 36,000 tonnes per day of throughput in the first half of January.

 

It's joint venture partner in the mine, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. of Japan, has a long-term agreement to purchase Copper Mountain's copper concentrate.

 

Copper future prices have plunged in recent weeks, partly because of slowing economic growth in China — the world's biggest market for the metal, which is used in a wide variety of industrial, construction and consumer products.

 

The March copper contract in New York was US$2.57 a pound in electronic trading Monday during a U.S. holiday session, down four cents from Friday and down about 15 per cent from the end of October, prior to a broad decline in resource commodities.

 

The company will report its 2014 financial results on Feb. 20.