Silver takes gold at South32’s North Queensland mine
Silver is a standout at the company’s North Queensland Cannington mine, with sales spiking by 69 per cent.
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Silver at South32’s Cannington mine has buoyed quarterly results at the North Queensland mine as zinc production and sales take a hit.
On Monday the Perth-headquartered global miner posted a 36 per cent drop in payable zinc sales quarter-on-quarter from its Cannington mine.
Zinc production was also down for the September quarter by six per cent, year-on-year, due to lower grade stopes and average zinc grades declining.
The Cannington mine is a large silver and lead mine about 130km south of Cloncurry, which employs more than 500 people.
South32 chief executive Graham Kerr said there were macroeconomic headwinds for many of the company’s commodities, which meant South32 was focused on operating performance and cost efficiencies.
“This focus, along with our production growth in commodities critical for a low-carbon future, positions us well to capture higher margins as market conditions improve,” Mr Kerr said in the quarterly update.
The company’s financial year guidance on payable zinc equivalent production remains unchanged.
The Cannington mine produces lead and zinc concentrates which have silver content, and it is silver that was the bright spot this quarter.
Silver sales spiked 69 per cent year-on-year to 2.8m ounces. South32 also got a boost out of lead sales, which increased 37 per cent year-on-year to 25,600t at the mine.
South32’s share price shed 2.3 per cent – $0.08 – on Monday morning.
The company took a hit this year when the value of a major United States project was written-down by $1.3bn.
The American Hermosa project had the same potential as the Cannington mine, Mr Kerr said in August, which was a small part of BHP’s operations before it began delivering large returns for more than 25 years.
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Originally published as Silver takes gold at South32’s North Queensland mine
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