Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX:AIS) increased quarterly copper production by 6.2% to 6,867 tonnes of copper from its 100% owned Tritton Copper Operations in central-west New South Wales.
The ore mined was at a grade of 1.87% copper, notably higher than the previous two quarter of 1.55% and 1.70% copper.
Costs remained in line with previous quarter at $2.88 per pound C1 cash costs and $3.57 per pound all-in sustaining costs (AISC).
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Aeris is an established copper producer and developer with multiple mines and a 1.8 million tonnes per annum copper processing plant.
The company is targeting production of 27,000 tonnes of copper in FY2018, with 19,094 tonnes produced through the first three quarters.
In FY2017, the Tritton Copper Operations produced 23,404 tonnes of copper, mainly from the Tritton underground mine.
It has about 5 years of mine life given the 1.6 million tonnes per annum processing rate and 10.5 million tonnes of Ore Reserves grading 1.5% copper.
Exploration drilling planned at Tritton tenement package
After multiple electromagnetic (EM) surveys were completed over the greater Tritton tenement package, a number of priority targets have been earmarked for drilling.
EM anomalies at the Marlin and Galaxy targets are expected to be drilled during April 2018.
Additionally, one hole is planned to test the continuity of copper mineralisation at the Kurrajong prospect.
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At the 70% owned Torrens Project in South Australia, final drilling approval was received.
The authorisation allows for up to 70 deep diamond drill holes over an area of 120 square kilometre over the Torrens geophysical anomalies.
The Torrens coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly has a footprint considerably larger than that of Olympic Dam.