Plant shutdowns impact Vedanta's Q3 output

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Despite lower output at its zinc operations in the third quarter of the current financial year, diversified miner Vedanta Resources says it is still on track to achieve its stated guidance of higher mined metal production for the full year.

Its total production across operations for the quarter ended December 31, fell to 33 000 t, 35% lower year-on-year, primarily owing to the closure of the Lisheen mine, in Ireland, in November 2015, following 17 years of successful operations.

However, the company said it had made “substantial operational progress” at its Zinc India operations during the three months under review, with mined metal production up 21% to 276 000 t.

Production was 17% lower quarter-on-quarter mainly owing to technical issues at Skorpion and Black Mountain Mining (BMM), which necessitated some production rescheduling.

The Skorpion mine, in south-west Namibia, produced 17 000 t, 34% higher than in the December 2015 quarter, but 25% lower than the September 2016 quarter, as increased upstream material handling challenges to treat wetter-than-anticipated ore through the refinery arose.

BMM, in the Northern Cape, produced 15 000 t in the quarter under review. At its Gamsberg project pre-start activities and waste-stripping was progressing well. To date, Vedanta has excavated over 13-million tonnes of waste rock.

“Project cost of 75% is committed, to date, with major orders for the mining contract, the concentrator plant and power and water connections placed,” the miner noted.

It is planned that the balance of orders for equipment will be placed in the fourth quarter of this year, with first production on track for mid-2018, followed by a 9- to 12-month ramp-up to full production of 250 000 t/y. The expected cost of production at Gamsberg is $1 000/t to $1 150/t.

Integrated zinc metal production during the quarter stood at 205 000 t, up 38% from the previous quarter.

At its iron-ore operations, Vedanta produced 2.3-million tonnes of iron-ore at its Goa mine, in India, as well as generated sales of 2.7-million tonnes during the quarter.

Pig iron production also increased year-on-year, to 154 000 t, owing to higher plant availability post-debottlenecking. However, this fell by 20% quarter-on-quarter owing to 35-day maintenance shutdown to reline one of the furnaces.

Meanwhile, its copper division saw total mined metal production of 21 000 t, 33% lower year-on-year, mainly owing to lower production from its Nchanga underground mine, near Chingola, in Zambia, which was placed on managed care and maintenance and had contributed 4 000 t last year, and one-off equipment constraints at its Konkola underground mine, also near Chingola.

Production from Konkola was impacted by lower trackless equipment availability. At the tailings leach plant, production reduced by 25% year-on-year owing to throughput constraints at the mill and lower feeds from current tails.