[SMM analysis] Mila multi-year production of 350000 tons of copper ore project started copper concentrate TC downlink not stop

SMM7, 21 / 21 / PRNewswire-FirstCall-Asianet /-

Ministry of Commerce of the people's Republic of China: Ecuador's "Telegraph" reported on July 17 that the Milado copper mine project invested and operated by China Railway Construction Copper Crown Investment Co., Ltd., a joint venture between China Railway Construction Corporation and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd., will be put into production on July 18, 2019 after 16 years of preliminary exploration and research.

The Milado copper project, located in El Zamora-Chinchipe province, is mainly made of copper ore and has a controlled and proven resource of 660 million tons of ore, which was previously considered by the industry to be one of the largest undeveloped copper mines in the world. Among them, the amount of copper metal is 3.49 million tons, gold 112 tons, silver 927 tons, belonging to the world's super large copper mine. The construction of the first phase of the project will achieve a production capacity of 20 million tons per year, and the annual output of the first phase of the project will be about 350000 tons of copper concentrate (containing 26 per cent copper). There are currently 2200 project personnel under implementation. At the beginning of production, the daily output of copper ore will reach 400 tons and will be exported from the port of Guayaquil to China by the end of August.

The official commissioning of the Milado copper project will bring an average annual revenue of US $90 million to Ecuador. China Railway Construction Copper Crown Investment Co., Ltd. will also pay a total of US $100 million in mineral resources tax to the Ecuadorian government for the Milado copper project.

This week, SMM copper concentrate TC was quoted at US $54 to US $58 / tonne. At present, the market TC quotation has been cut more and more rapidly, from the average price of US $92 per ton at the beginning of the year to this point, the cost pressure of domestic refineries has soared, and some small smelters are even more miserable. The sharp decline in domestic copper concentrate TC is mainly due to the centralized release of domestic refinery capacity this year, so the import of Milado copper mine is expected to alleviate the current cost pressure of domestic refineries, especially in Chile, Zambia and other major importing countries of copper raw materials in the recent frequent mining accidents, production significantly decreased. However, judging from the volume of the Milado copper mine, it is difficult for the output of this mine alone to drive the recovery of the low TC level in the market, and as the market has long expected the start-up of the Milado copper project, this part of the production capacity has been included in the supply balance this year, so it is difficult to shake up the current low copper concentrate TC, and the TC floor price for the third quarter was recently finalized by the CSPT team as Mids-50 (US $55 / ton). It has also shown the market's acceptance of low-cost TC.

(SMM Kwong Tze-si)