Ferro-Alloy Resources Ltd (LSE:FAR) said it is confident of resuming full operations as it reacted to the collapse of one of its major concentrate suppliers.
Following the record second quarter owing to the improvements made to its processing factory, including new capacity for recovering molybdenum, nickel and vanadium, the supplier’s collapse resulted in production falling in the third quarter – as the company flagged in August.
While the vanadium producer arranged a number of additional contracts with other concentrate suppliers, delivery has taken longer than anticipated, it said, resulting in shortages persisting into the beginning of the fourth quarter.
But Ferro-Alloy said “concentrates sufficient for nearly four months of planned production are either now on site or in transit”.
As a result, it is confident that there will be sufficient supply to allow full operations from now on.
Chief executive Nick Bridgen said: "With the steps that we've taken to increase the quality and number of concentrate suppliers we deal with, the deliveries that have been made to site in the last few days and the pipeline of deliveries already in transit, we are confident that production will not be affected by any foreseeable supply shortages this year and beyond."
In the third quarter, 314 tonnes of concentrate were processed, compared to 1,016.6 tonnes in the second and 194.1 tonnes in the first.
Production of vanadium pentoxide was 47.3 tonnes, molybdenum 6.4 tonnes and nickel 15.7 tonnes, which was down on the second quarter but higher than or equal to the first.