Production up 17% at Rio Tinto’s Era subsidiary

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia (Era) has reported a 17% surge in production for the full year ended December, despite a drop in December quarter production.

The Rio Tinto subsidiary on Friday reported that uranium oxide production in the fourth quarter to December reached 603 t, down from the 666 t produced in the previous quarter.

However, total production for 2016 increased to 2 351 t, from 2 005 t produced in 2015. The 2016 production is beating the company’s production guidance of between 1 900 t and 2 300 t.

Era reported that production during the December quarter had been impacted by scheduled mill maintenance activities, which resulted in lower volumes of ore milled. The mill head grade and recoveries were consistent with the September quarter.