Gibraltar Mines saw a strong performance in copper production in the third quarter.
“It’s one that really turned Gibraltar to a steady and predictable rate of mining and production,” Sean Magee, Vice President of Corporate Affairs with Taseko Mines, said, “we reported last week the production of 28.3 million pounds of copper and 324 thousand pounds of molybdenum and that was a significant increase over the previous quarter.”
Magee noted that the increase was largely based on the progress made in transitioning mining into the Gibraltar pit.
“We’ve been doing that for a number of months. We’re at the point where we’re reaching some softer ore and some slightly higher grade and so that’s allowed us to put more ore through the mill and to recover more copper than we had in previous quarters.”
President and CEO of Taseko, Stuart McDonald stated in a financial report this was the highest quarterly mill throughput at Gibraltar since the expansion ten years ago.
Magee added that he expects to see that continue into the fourth quarter of the year-end into 2023.
“Gibraltar remains a reliable producer of jobs and economic activity and copper in the Cariboo and will continue to be. As I said these results return us to a stable and predictable level and that level of activity allows us to support more than 700 jobs and many hundreds of millions of dollars in annual contracting and Government revenues and supports for communities and First Nations. Based on the kind of performance we’re seeing today and the long-term outlook for copper, those types of benefits we see them as being very sustainable for the future,” Magee said.