Latest production data published in the last week gives a more up-to-date view of production performance by two of the world’s leading underground tin mines, San Rafael in Peru and Renison in Australia. Peru’s energy and mines ministry published monthly official mine production data on Friday showing a 5.7% year-on-year fall in tin-in-concentrate production to 1,693 tonnes in August. According to our records this brings year-to-date production in January-August to 12,815 tonnes, down by 14.5% compared to the same period of 2014. Monthly production has been fairly stable in the 1,600 – 1,700 tpm range for most of this year, which if maintained should be just enough to reach the bottom end of the company’s 20,000 – 22,000 tonne production guidance for the year.
Meanwhile the major Chinese shareholder in the Renison joint venture project, L’Sea Resources, yesterday released unaudited production figures for September and the first three quarters of the year. Last month’s production was 562 tonnes, a decrease of 16.7% compared to September 2014, while January-September production of 4,927 tonnes was exactly the same as in the first three quarters of last year. A period of steadily improving quarterly production performance has therefore come to an end, although this might just be a temporary blip related to the seismic event which disrupted production in August. Production should continue to push up to an annual rate of around 7,500 tpy through next year, but calendar year 2015 performance may now fall slightly short of last year’s level, given that an all-time record level of output was achieved in Q4 2014.
