Central Asia Metals meets production targets for 2018

Central Asia Metals issued its full year operations update for the Kounrad dump leach, solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) copper recovery plant in Kazakhstan, as well as the Sasa zinc-lead mine in Macedonia, on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said that at Kounrad, 14,049 tonnes of copper was produced, down from 14,103 tonnes in the prior year.

At Sasa, 22,532 tonnes of zinc in concentrate and 29,388 tonnes of lead in concentrate was produced, rising from 21,585 tonnes and falling from 29,881 tonnes respectively.

It said the diamond drilling exploration programme was completed at Sasa, with an updated mineral resource estimate expected in the first quarter of 2019.

Looking at its 2019 production guidance, Central Asia Metals said it was expecting to produce 12,500 to 13,500 tonnes of copper, 22,000 to 24,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate, and 28,000 to 30,000 tonnes of lead in concentrate.

Cash in the bank as at 31 December stood at $39m.

“2018 has been transformational for us, as we have operated both of our assets for a full year, meeting our production targets for the three base metals - copper, zinc and lead,” said chief executive officer Nigel Robinson/

“We are also encouraged by the results of the exploration drilling at Sasa and look forward to demonstrating the overall outcome of this work in an updated JORC compliant mineral resource estimate during the current quarter.”

Robinson said that, while the company encountered copper mineralisation at Shuak, it believed that was “unlikely” to be sufficiently material in terms of scale for it to develop.

“However, our business development activities gathered momentum during the second half of 2018 and we have been encouraged by some of the opportunities that we have reviewed.

“Our 2018 annual results are scheduled to be released on 10 April, when our final dividend for 2018 will also be announced.”