Australia’s Metro Mining Ltd. released production and shipping results for the month of July yesterday. Metro turned in monthly records for both mining and shipping bauxite ore thanks in large part to capital improvements made at Bauxite Hills Mine during this year’s rainy season.
In July, Metro mined 443 thousand wet metric tons (WMT), an increase of 16 thousand WMT on the month. July’s production exceeded May’s output by 114 thousand WMT and April’s cyclone-shortened output by 319 WMT. Metro mined an average of 14,290 WMT per day, helping the firm bring the year-to-date total of mined bauxite to 1,323 thousand WMT.
July saw Metro ship 463 thousand WMT, beating out June’s shipments of 374 thousand WMT, May’s shipments of 311 thousand WMT, and April’s shipments of 151 thousand WMT. Metro averaged shipments of 14,935 WMT per day, pushing the year’s total bauxite shipments to 1,299 thousand WMT.
Simon Finnis, Metro Mining’s managing director and CEO praised the results thus far and promised that even better returns are yet to come.
“The mining and shipping results are certainly very pleasing and are clearly reflective of the dedication and hard work of the entire on–site team. We are still trending upwards as our team gains experience with our operation, and the improved work systems have enhanced our productivity. Metro is confident of maintaining these levels throughout the year and remains on track to meet production and shipping guidance of 3.3-3.5M WMT.”
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.