Thompson Creek Metals recently announced the commissioning of its new Endako mill and that commercial production was achieved on February 1, 2012. For the first five days of February, the new mill was running at or above its design capacity of 55,000 t/d, a 77% increase over the old mill’s capacity of 31,000 t/d. The construction of the regrind circuit for the new mill is still in process and is expected to be completed by the end of March 2012. In the interim, the company is utilising the cleaner and regrind circuit in the old mill.

The company also reaffirmed 2012 production guidance for its 75% share of the Endako mine of approximately 10-11 Mlb of molybdenum. “We are extremely pleased to have achieved the full design tonnage for the new mill just 20 days into the commissioning and start-up process,” said Kevin Loughrey, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thompson Creek. “Our employees, contractors, and suppliers have performed an outstanding job meeting the many challenges necessary to reach operational and commercial production so quickly. We continue to make significant progress and ramp up production, and we anticipate full production will be achieved in the second quarter of 2012. Once at full production, the Endako mine is expected to increase molybdenum production from approximately 10 Mlb/y to approximately 16 Mlb/y.”