Chinalco’s Toromocho project to start commercial production in Q1 2015

Peru’s Toromocho mine will start commercial production in the first quarter of 2015 after improvements to its processing plant are finished, according to Chinalco.

Peru’s Toromocho mine will start commercial production in the first quarter of 2015 after improvements to its processing plant are finished, according to Chinalco.

The mine reached continuous full production capacity in October 2014, but some parts of the thickeners in the processing plants required improvement to deal with all the output, the company said in a statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday January 2.

It now estimates the improvement works to be finished and the project to begin commercial production in the first quarter of 2015.

The company produced approximately 290,000 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrates, or 70,000 tonnes of copper, in 2014, which is expected to bring in $355 million in unaudited sales for the year.

As its arsenic content exceeds 0.5%, concentrate from Toromocho is used by some traders and producers to make blend materials.

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