Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. TC has announced its production and sales results for third-quarter 2015. Total concentrate production for the Mount Milligan mine was 31.7 thousand dry tons, with 16.3 million pounds of payable copper and 53.8 thousand ounces of payable gold, marking an increase of 1% and a decline of 11%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.

Daily mill throughput averaged 44,077 tons and mill availability averaged 90.2% for the quarter. Throughput was hampered during the quarter as a result of SAG screen deck failures due to overloading and related recirculation issues, along with lower mill availability caused by scheduled and unscheduled mill shutdowns. Mill availability was affected by scheduled shutdowns to complete maintenance on the primary crusher, reline the ball mills, and carry out the annual inspection of the SAG mill motor.    

Thompson Creek plans to install a second SAG discharge screen deck in Oct 2015, which will enable it to increase throughput without significant issues.  The company feels that these improvements along with the continuation of secondary crushing of material from its temporary crushing facility, throughput will improve in November and December. The company aims to attain design mill throughput by end-2015.

Thompson Creek’s shares closed roughly 5.7% lower at 50 cents on Oct 13.
The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the mining space are NovaGold Resources Inc. NG, Asanko Gold Inc. AKG and Primero Mining Corp. PPP. While NovaGold sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Asanko Gold and Primero Mining carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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