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Monday November 20, 12:58 PMOxiana's Sepon mine in Laos sets output recordVIENTIANE, Laos, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Sepon copper mine operated by Australia's Oxiana Ltd. has set a daily production record of 306 tonnes of high-grade copper metal, mine officials said.Sepon operations manager Phil Dunstan told Reuters during a tour of the project in southern Laos that the mine had been steadily building towards a production rate which was above the official capacity of 60,000 tonnes of copper a year. "We're now running a few percent above nameplate," Dunstan said. "The plan is to continue producing as fast as we can to catch the high world copper prices." The daily record was set last Friday, well up on previous output of about 260 tonnes before a ramp up in production. At the latest copper price of US$6,690 a tonne, Friday's production was valued at approximately US$2 million. Sepon mines high-grade ore which assays an average of 5.3 per cent copper, and produces A-grade copper metal rather than a concentrate. The metal is trucked directly from the mine to customers in Thailand, China and Vietnam. Dunstan said the mine and processing plant had been through a series of "de-bottlenecking" procedures to maximise output. "We're about to start another round of de-bottlenecking to see if we can lift production further," he said. Oxiana's chief executive, Owen Hegarty, said in Vientiane after the plant tour that studies were continuing into doubling the capacity of Sepon by 2009. A decision on the new investment required would be made next year. Hegarty said all copper from Sepon was being sold at the daily world price. It was not possible to take the latest record daily output and convert it into an annualised figure because of required routine plant maintenance, he said. "But we're certainly confident of beating the rated capacity this year," he said. The Sepon project, built at a cost of US$350 million, started producing gold four years ago and copper in March last year. Gold output this year is expected to be close to 160,000 ounces. Sepon is the biggest single foreign investment project in Laos, employing more than 3,800 people. The mine contributed the bulk of Oxiana's net profit of A$263 million in the six months to June 30. Like other copper producers, Oxiana's share price has been hit by the downturn in metal prices, falling from a recent high of A$3.56 on Oct. 25 to A$3.03 on Friday. |
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