MMG performance propped up by Dugald River mine

MMG’s revenue increased by $US149 million ($203 million) in the first half of 2018 due to its Dugald River mine’s first commercial production.

The Dugald River mine, MMG’s newest asset, contributed a revenue of $US69.2 million and EBITDA of $US28.8 million to MMG. The mine reached the production milestone in May.

This has caused a 162 and 83 per cent climb in MMG’s total zinc and lead sales volumes during the first half of 2018, respectively.

MMG chief executive Geoffrey Gao said, “The ramp up of Dugald River and the achievement of commercial production ahead of schedule has been an outstanding achievement and further demonstrates MMG’s ability to deliver world-class assets.

“While Dugald River’s ramp up has been a success to date, our focus now is on optimising the operation, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.”

MMG announced today that it has entered into a sales agreement with CMC subsidiary Minmetals North-Europe for its Dugald River zinc concentrate. From 2019 to 2020, MMG will supply to Minmetals around 40,000 dry metric tonnes of product such as zinc and silver every year.

The products will be processed in major Chinese zinc smelters associated with the CMC group, one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises in the mining sector.

MMG is working toward making Dugald one of the world’s top 10 zinc mines, which will be achieved once the mine reaches at steady state production.

The mine is anticipated to produce 170,000t of zinc concentrate once at full ramp-up.

Dugald has a mine life of around 25 years and houses one of the world’s highest-grade zinc deposits.