MMG Ltd recently announced that its Dugald River zinc operation in Queensland, Australia achieved commercial production on May 1, 2018. The date of commencement of commercial production marks the time from which the site will be treated as an operation rather than a project for accounting purposes.

Executive General Manager Operations – Africa, Australia and Asia, Mark Davis said this confirmed the ramp up of the plant is progressing on schedule and commercial production has been reached in line with guidance to the market. Dugald River will process an average 1.7 Mt/y of ore to initially produce 170,000 t of zinc in concentrate, plus by-products.

“Dugald River is a world class operation that has been delivered under budget and ahead of schedule. Its successful achievement of the commercial production milestone inside five months of first concentrate delivers on our commitment to drive value for shareholders,” he said.

“MMG is re-emerging as a major zinc player – when Dugald River completes ramp up and is operating at design rates it will be one of the world’s top 10 zinc mines. We remain positive about the long-term fundamentals for zinc and Dugald River has come into production at a time of tightening global supply and strong prices.”

Recent milestones in the development of the Dugald River project include:

• Zinc production commencing in the fourth quarter 2017 with the first concentrate achieved on 8 November; and
• First shipment of approximately 10,500 wet metric tonnes of zinc concentrate produced as part of commissioning activities departed the Port of Townsville in Australia for Huangpu, China on 16 December 2017.

MMG will provide an update on production at Dugald River in its Q2 Production Report.