By TesfaNews,
THE transport and logistics challenge that was identified in early January at the Bisha mine is now resolved with the purchase of additional 45 trucks, Nevsun notified to shareholders during a Conference Call meeting conducted last week.
In the first quarter (Q1) 2014, the plant was forced to shut down for 13 – days to enable land transport supplier to catch up with production by trucking concentrates to the port of Massawa. That caused a production loss of around 6 million pounds of Copper.
Nevsun said that it was poised to accelerate production during the current quarter and restated its 2014 production guidance of 180-million to 200-million of copper concentrate. To stay in this schedule, however, the plant needs to produce 520,000 pounds of copper a day, averaging to 25 trucks in the service each day.
The transport contractor, however, deployed only 55 trucks for the task, averaging 21 trucks a day. According to Nevsun, the transport supplier probably underestimated the magnitude of the project that normally requires to work up to speed, 24/7 as it has been noted that it uses some of these trucks to do other jobs in the background. That caused a mismatch in the production and supply of the red metal with a 13 days plant closure.
Nevsun’s Eritrean partner, ENAMCO, intervened to resolve the matter with a quick order of 45 more trucks from China to make up a total of fully dedicated 100 transport trucks, averaging now up to 30 trucks in service per day.
With a greater capacity to move concentrates to a port facility in Massawa, the company believes that they are now in good shape to meet production guidance. “The intervention demonstrates once again how important the relationship with the state is to the success of Bisha mine,” stated Cliff Davis, CEO and president of Nevsun.
The CEO also said with the continued excitement on the newly discovered potentials in the VMS camp and the significant expansion upside in the existing deposits, he believes that another Bisha is entirely possible. He said the company will release these amazing results in June 2014.
Nevsun’s CRS record so far returns with an outstanding safety record that exceeds 17 million man hours without any lost time injury. CEO Cliff Davis comfortably said that no other mining plant in the world have claimed such safety record so far.
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Nevsun Resources Q1 2014 Earning Results Conference Call can be heard HERE
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