logo-loader

Weatherly soars after Tschudi production update

Published: 00:49 15 Apr 2016 AEST

Trader
The shares were the top performers in London for most of the day

Weatherly International PLC (LON:WTI) shares soared in early deals after an impressive production update from its Tschudi copper asset in Namibia.

The company said it maintained its track record of meeting or surpassing production guidance at Tschudi.

In the first three months of 2016 – the third quarter of the company's financial year - Tschudi delivered quarterly production of 4,442 tonnes of copper cathode, which was 4% above its nameplate production rate of 17,000 tonnes per annum, and up from 4,076 tonnes in the preceding quarter.

Direct cash costs, known as C1 costs, for Tschudi for the quarter were US$3,429 per tonne, remaining well below guidance of US$4,250-4,350 per tonne for the current financial year, Weatherly said.

The impressive cost-control performance was a result of strong production results and a focus on productivity and cost discipline on site, as well as favourable movements in the Namibian dollar/US dollar exchange rate.

“Exchange rate movements have assisted us in keeping US dollar production costs well below forecast, although a focus on productivity and cost discipline by the team on site have also played important roles in delivering these satisfying results,” said Craig Thomas, chief executive officer of Weatherly.

Prices received for the quarter averaged US$4,742 per tonne while planned production for the current quarter has been pre-sold at US$4,912 per tonne.

“Tschudi is now operating at above its designed nameplate capacity and appears to have put its early setbacks behind it,” said broker SP Angel.

The shares were the top performers in London for much of the day, rising 50% to 0.75p.

---ADDS BROKER COMMENT AND UPDATES SHARE PRICE---

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

9 hours, 53 minutes ago