If you like press releases that don’t dance around and get right to the point, then Atalaya Mining (TSX: AYM) is a company you should check out. The Cypress-based copper miner doesn’t jazz up its headlines - in fact it generally doesn’t even mention the company’s name in them – it just gets down to what it has to tell its investors. On Wednesday, it was an operations update looking back at the first quarter.
Atalaya reported copper production at its Proyecto Riotinto in southwest Spain of 9,441 tonnes during Q1 2018, the second best quarterly production in the company’s history and up from 8,805 tonnes in the year earlier quarter. Production was up quarter-over-quarter too, from 8,622 tonnes in Q4 2017.
Management attributed the strong quarter to a record average recovery of 88.47 percent. Other key metrics were essentially in line with previous quarters, including ore mined, ore milled and copper grade.
For the full year, the company reiterated its guidance for production in the range of 37,000 to 40,000 tonnes. The quarter ended with about 1,121 tonnes of concentrate stockpiled at the property.
Atalaya is in the midst of expanding Proyecto Riotinto to 15 million tonnes per annum. The company says the expansion is just over a quarter of the way done, with the final completion expected in the second quarter of next year.
Elsewhere, permitting is moving along on schedule at Proyecto Touro, a brownfield project in northwest Spain where Atalaya can earn an 80 percent interest. A NI-43-101 compliant pre-feasibility study on the project will be released this quarter.
The straightforward, nose-down approach appears to be working just fine for Atalaya. Shares are pressed against a 52-week high set at $4.00 at the start of April, with the stock holding at $3.99 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, albeit on thin volume of less than 5,000 shares.
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