Trigon Metals has announced the production of its first copper concentrate. On Friday, August 18, 2023, the Company produced its first sale-ready dried copper concentrate for sale at the mill which has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day on Monday, August 21, 2023, the first full day of concentrate production, 436 tonnes of ore were processed through the mill (nearly 44% of capacity) and the Company is targeting 70% production by the end of September.
In the commissioning stage, the mill was purposely fed lower-grade material (average feed grade of 0.73% copper) rescued from waste as identified by ore spotters. The utilization of low-grade feed makes the result stand out as more impressive, having produced a concentrate grade of 33.5% copper at recoveries of 79.5%. The resulting concentrate has exceeded the expected grade of 20%, and recoveries have the potential to improve with higher-grade feed. Higher-grade concentrate translates directly to higher profitability due to lower shipment and treatment charges per pound of copper produced.
Stockpiles on the run-of-mine pad now total 27,000 tonnes of ore averaging close to 1.2% Cu, representing one month’s supply of ore feed.
Trigon VP Operations and Kombat Mine manager, Fanie Müller, commented: “The mill is performing very well. This level of efficiency on our starter feed puts us in an excellent position as we start to feed our target grades.”
Trigon is a publicly traded Canadian exploration and development company with its core business focused on copper and silver holdings in mine-friendly African jurisdictions. Currently, the company has operations in Namibia and Morocco. In Namibia, the Company holds an 80% interest in five mining licences in the Otavi Mountainlands, an area of Namibia widely recognized for its high-grade copper deposits, where the Company is focused on exploration and re-development of the previously producing Kombat Mine. In Morocco, the Company is the holder of the Silver Hill and Addana projects, highly prospective copper and silver exploration projects.