Taseko trims full-year copper guidance despite jump in Q3 production

[Yellow large dump truck in Utah copper mine seen from above]
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Taseko Mines (NYSE:TGB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TGB]) -1.1% in Wednesday's trading after cutting its full-year copper production guidance [https://seekingalpha.com/pr/20266308-taseko-announces-start-of-wellfield-operations-at-florence-copper-and-third-quarter-gibraltar] to 100 million-105 million lbs from a prior outlook of 120 million-130 million lbs, despite reporting a sharp improvement in Q3 output at its Gibraltar mine in British Columbia.

Q3 copper production at Gibraltar rose 39% Q/Q to 27.6 million lbs, including 900,000 lb of copper cathode, while molybdenum output jumped 211% to 560,000 lbs; mill throughput at Gibraltar averaged 85,300 tons/day during the quarter, with copper recoveries improving steadily to 77%, including 83% in September, while copper head grades averaged 0.22%, below plan but higher than in the previous two quarters.

"At Gibraltar, mining is advancing deeper into the Connector pit, and we continue to see steady improvement in copper grades and ore quality, as most of the secondary mineralization is now behind us," President and CEO Stuart McDonald said, adding the company expects another significant production increase in Q4 but "will not recover the production shortfall from recent months."

Taseko (NYSE:TGB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TGB]) also said wellfield operations had started at its Florence Copper project in Arizona after receiving final regulatory approvals, marking the startup of the commercial production facility.

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