The expansion of Vancouver-based Taseko's Gibraltar mine in south-central British Columbia is progressing rapidly and the company's revenues are up, Taseko announced in its third-quarter report Aug. 14. Cash flow from operations was C$14.6 million in the third quarter of this year, an increase of $2.2 million over the same period last year. Gibraltar produced 12.7 million pounds of copper in the third quarter, an increase of 2.6 million pounds over the same period last year.

"We are very happy with the progress of operations and our construction at site," Russell Hallbauer, Taseko's president and CEO, said in a conference call Aug. 15. "We continue to be on time and on budget with our concentrator expansion and upgrade." Upon completion, Gibraltar's average annual production is expected to be 120 million pounds of copper and 1.4 million tons of molybdenum. The two-phase expansion is expected to cost approximately $130 million.

Production affected by fire

Copper and molybdenum production at Gibraltar was affected by a fire in an electrical control room in the secondary crusher in late April. Nine days of mill production were lost due to downtime resulting from repairs directly related to fire damage. The mine continued to move waste rock during the mill shutdown. Copper and molybdenum recoveries were also lower than in previous quarters due to the transition to the new 160-cubic-meter flotation cells. All 10 cells were in operation on schedule by mid-July, and rougher flotation capacity has now been increased by 160 percent, according to Taseko.

Production from the solvent extraction/electrowinning plant was lower than expected during April and May as the operation worked through cold weather and system startup issues. The plant produced more than 500,000 pounds of copper in cathode in June, equating to an annual capacity of 6 million pounds.

The major SAG mill components for the expansion were constructed in Europe and commenced shipment in July. Mill motors and ancillary systems are on site at Gibraltar and are being installed in the newly erected SAG mill building. As a result of SAG mill installation and flotation upgrades, the ore processing capacity of the concentrator at Gibraltar will increase from 36,750 to 46,000 tons per day by the end of calendar 2007.

Gibraltar's phase 2 expansion is designed to increase concentrator capacity to 55,000 tons per day by late 2008. This project consists of modernizing and increasing regrind capacity, cleaner flotation and concentrate circuits, installing a two-stage pumping system, and adding a pebble crusher to the SAG mill circuit.