Cyprus-based Atalaya Mining produced 14,695mt of copper in Q3 2020 after completing its 15mn mt per year ore throughput expansion project and is projected to reach its 55-58,000mt guidance for 2020. Compared to the prior year, the miner’s Proyecto Riotinto site in southwest Spain produced 39pc more copper over 10,568mt in Q3 2019. Meanwhile, a 7.8pc increase in production was seen compared to the preceding quarter against 13,635mt.
During the quarter, the company processed 4mn mt of ore, despite some downtime for planned maintenance. It attributed the rise in production to higher milling operations. From January-September, copper output tallied at 41,559mt. Atalaya did not disclose the prior-year figures for a nine-month comparison.
The company is now focused on carrying out cost-cutting programs and improving copper recovery following the expansion. Operations are now at full-scale after recovering from a brief halt in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after which mining was declared as an essential enterprise.
Atalaya is also working on the Tuoro copper mine in northwest Spain which, according to the pre-feasibility study, holds 392,000mt of copper, which will be produced at 30,000mt per year over the life of the mine.