Australia’s Metro Mining Ltd. announced production results for the month of August on Tuesday. As the firm was making preparations for the coming wet season, it reduced production in the quarter while ramping up shipments to global buyers.
In August, Metro mined 460 thousand wet metric tons of bauxite ore, bringing the year-to-date total to 2,381 thousand wet metric tons. August’s total was below that of July, when the firm harvested 501 thousand wet metric tons of bauxite ore. For the second quarter, Metro brought 1,419 thousand wet metric tons of bauxite ore to the surface.
Metro’s per diem average production in August was 14,854 wet metric tons of bauxite ore, down from an average daily run of 16,170 wet metric tons in July, but slightly closer to the second-quarter average daily bauxite production total of 15,768 wet metric tons and the year-to-date average daily production of 15,664 wet metric tons.
Metro shipped 520 thousand wet metric tons of bauxite ore in August, besting July’s total of 456 thousand wet metric tons and bringing the year-to-date total to 2,227 thousand wet metric tons.
On a daily basis the firm shipped an average of 16,768 wet metric tons to buyers in August, up from July’s daily average total of 14,714 wet metric tons but generally in line with the second-quarter daily shipping average of 16,034 wet metric tons. For the year through August, Metro averaged 15,905 wet metric tons of bauxite shipments per day.
Metro’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Simon Finnis expressed satisfaction at the firm’s production over the previous calendar month.
“Despite a period of uncertainty the site continues to perform safely and extremely well. I thank the operational team for its continued effort in maintaining such a high standard.”
“We continue to see improvements in the market and are regularly fielding new enquiries,” he went on. “We continue to make good progress in our negotiations for further bauxite sales.”
Metro Mining is based in Brisbane, and began life when it was spun off from Cape Alumina Ltd. upon its takeover by MetroCoal Ltd in 2014. The firm has exploration rights in over 500 square miles of western Cape York, which is second to only Rio Tinto Alcan.