Imperial Metals Reports Higher Q3 Output from Red Chris Mine

Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX:III) released its Q3 production results, commenting that its Red Chris mine put out 20.7 million pounds of copper and 9,281 ounces of gold in the period. Those are increases of 64 and 100 percent, respectively.
As quoted in the press release:

In the third quarter of 2015 the mill achieved an average throughput of 26,000 tpd, an increase of 27.8% over the second quarter of 2015. The mine moved an average of 68,931 tonnes of material per day during the third quarter 2015.
Mining activities continued in the Main and East zones, with the bulk (approximately 78%) of the mill feed coming from the Main zone with higher grade East zone ores (approximately 22%) being blended with the Main zone ores. The ore grade averaged 0.479% copper and 0.257 g/t gold for the quarter. Metallurgical results improved during the quarter. This improvement was partially achieved through blending Main zone and higher grade East zone ore. Blended ore was available in both July and August, while only Main zone ore was available for most of September. Metal recoveries for the third quarter averaged 81.7% copper and 44.8% gold.
Plans to increase stripping are being implemented so that East zone ores will be more consistently available for blending. This plan includes moving two Cat 793 haul trucks and an excavator from Mount Polley to Red Chris to increase the mining capacity at Red Chris to 100,000 tpd.

Brian Kynoch, president of Imperial Metals, commented:

We are very pleased with the progress made at Red Chris during its second full quarter of production (the first quarter of commercial production), with average mill through-put and metal recoveries increasing to very near targeted levels.

Click here to read the full Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX:III) press release.