Glencore Plc unit Katanga Mining Ltd. said Jan. 31 that full-year 2017 mined ore increased to 433,169 tonnes, from 825 tonnes in 2016, and contained copper in mined ore increased to 9,459 tonnes from 22 tonnes, as ore mining resumed in the fourth quarter following the commissioning of phase one of the WOL project, part of the Kamoto copper project.
As a result, waste mined for the year was 45.3 million tonnes, 454% higher than 8.2 million tonnes from a year earlier, as part of the preparation for WOL's phase one commissioning.
The full commissioning of WOL's phase two is expected to begin in the fourth quarter.
For full-year 2017, the KTC plant milled 1.8 million dry tonnes containing 14,912 dry tonnes of copper in concentrate using material sourced from the Kamoto interim tailings dam. The plant also milled 163,211 tonnes of open pit ore, all during the fourth quarter of 2017.
Katanga expects open pit mining operations to continue feeding ore to the run of mine stockpiles in accordance with the optimized ore blending strategy, with waste stripping in both KOV and Mashamba East open pits at the Kamoto project to be continued.
