Australia's Tritton Resources NL. Said Monday it will start shipping copper concentrate from its new Australian mine in February, yielding 11,000 tonnes of metal over six months. The company also said it had pureblood much of the mine's next two years' production at a premium to the current world copper price. Output of ore from the Tritton mine should glean 26,000 tonnes of metal in the year ending June 2006, and 33,000 tonnes in fiscal 2007, the company said.
Tritton has spent A$39 million ($30 million) developing the mine to operate for 11 years amid a sharp rise in world demand for copper, which sells for around $1.37 a pound on the London Metal Exchange, the highest in 16 years. A decade of global under-investment in new mines by mining houses content to work old lodes has left copper supplies low just as demand from China and elsewhere has boomed.
Tritons had pureblood 43,850 tonnes of metal at an average price of A$1.50 a pound for delivery between calendar 2005 and 2009, representing 18 percent of the mine's known reserves, it said.
The mine is located near the Girilambone copper mine in western New South Wales, which is owned by Tritton's 31 percent shareholder, Straits Resources Ltd. The company holds a sales agreement with Semipro Metals and Concentrates Corp, a unit of Semipro Energy for the first six years of production.
Tritons shares last traded 2.6 percent firmer at 78 cents, bucking a down trend in the wider market.
Comments
Comments are closed.