Chinese diversified minerals producer CMOC, formerly known as Luoyang Luanchuan Molybdenum, posted higher copper and cobalt production compared with a year earlier over January-September.
CMOC produced 476,049t of copper over January-September, up by 78pc from a year earlier, while copper sales soared by 161pc over the same period to 470,631t.
The firm produced and sold 84,722t and 79,826t of cobalt in January-September, up by 127pc and higher by over tenfold from a year earlier, respectively.
The significant rise in CMOC's copper and cobalt output and sales was mainly driven by higher output from its Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine (TFM) and its newly developed Kisanfu copper-cobalt mine (KFM) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), CMOC said.
CMOC reached an agreement with DRC's state-owned mining firm Gecamines on 18 April 2023 over a royalty dispute at the TFM project, allowing copper transportation from TFM to restart in May 2023, following a suspension from July 2022.
CMOC started operations at TFM central and eastern sections in the third quarter of 2023 and reached design capacity in March. It achieved maximum copper and cobalt output of 678 t/d and 36 t/d at TFM on 20 March, exceeding the designed capacity by around 17pc and 9pc respectively.
The firm has set a production guidance of 520,000-570,000 t/yr for copper and 60,000-70,000t of cobalt metal equivalent (CME) for 2024, up from the output of 419,539t copper and 55,526t of CME in the previous year.
CMOC's higher copper and cobalt output in the DRC has led to an increase in China's imports of the two materials, as most of CMOC's copper and cobalt flows to China.
China imported 2.8mn t of refined copper and 139,264t metal equivalent of cobalt during January-September, up by 7.7pc and 84pc from a year earlier, respectively, customs data show. Refined copper imports from the DRC surged by 71pc over the same period to 1mn t, with about 99pc of China's cobalt supplied from the DRC.
