www.findersresources.com
Finders is an emerging low cost copper cathode producer, developing a high grade 25,000 tpa copper mine on Wetar Island in Indonesia, plus a highly prospective, advanced gold-silver exploration project in Sumatra.
Finders’ Wetar copper plant is producing in line and on budget
Finders Resources (LON:FND, ASX:FND) told investors that the Wetar project’s demonstration plant in Indonesia is operating as forecast and on budget, with 341 tonnes of copper cathode being produced in the third quarter ended 30 September 2010.
Around 361 tonnes were sold in the quarter at an average price of A$7,227 per tonne.
The demonstration plant has now produced approximately 2,253 tonnes of copper cathode since February 2009.
Finders said that leaching rates have slowed because no new ore has been stacked on Heaps 1-3 since early 2009, this level of production was anticipated and it is in line with the its earlier recovery curve predictions.
The next phase of the Wetar project will see the ‘Stage 1’ expansion of the demonstration plant for a 7,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) operation.
In August Finders raised A$20.9 in a share placing to support the Wetar development.
Finders said it is currently in the final stages of hiring contractors and suppliers for the construction phase.
The company is also working on the design for Stage 2, where the recently acquired Whim Creek plant will be relocating to Wetar leading to a further expansion to 23,000 tpa.
The export documentation is being finalised to take the Whim Creek equipment from Australia to Indonesia, and Finders expects to be ready to mobilise the equipment in the first quarter of 2011.
Additionally the company highlighted that it has completed the final documentation in support of its mining permit application.
However it cautioned that permitting may be delayed due to local elections in Indonesia.
Elsewhere, at the Ojolali project in Sumatra Finders, had been drilling on the Tambang gold-silver system, to test near surface mineralisation.
The program identified a new high grade gold-rich shoot, with a seven metre intersection grading 5.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 70 g/t silver at a depth of 55 metres. The intersection formed part of a broader 24 metres which had a grade of 1.84 g/t gold, 38 g/t silver and 0.56% zinc.
“The results have highlighted the continuity of wide zones of near surface gold-silver mineralization, and importantly demonstrated previously unrecognized potential for gold rich shoots within the system”, Finders said.
Additionally Finders said it expects to receive a new resource estimate in November, for the bulk low grade Jambi target at Ojolali.
