Nevsun Resources Ltd. NSU has announced that the processing plant at the Bisha Mine has been temporarily shut down due to a mechanical issue with the ball mill. The company believes that the closedown, which may take about two weeks to resolve, will not negatively affect its 2015 annual production guidance.

During the period of shutdown, the mine plans to catch up on waste mining and speed up other preventative maintenance that was scheduled for later in 2015.
 
Nevsun also provided some operational update. The company stated that the mining rates have improved and that too ahead of schedule in both waste and ore mining. Until the temporary shutdown, copper production was ahead of plan. The mill processed more than 365,000 tons of ore with copper feed grades through the end of Feb 2015.

Further, the company updated that the Zinc Expansion project remains on track and so does commissioning for mid-2016. The company announced that civil work is nearing completion for most areas and steel work erection has commenced.  Moreover, major equipment and long-lead time items have been ordered.

The company planned to speed up gearbox maintenance for the ball mill during its inspection as a crack was observed in output shaft bearing. The planned ball mill reline is scheduled for the second quarter of 2015.

Nevsun Resources currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the mining industry include NovaCopper Inc. NCQ, Coeur Mining, Inc. CDE and Energy Fuels Inc. UUUU. While NovaCopper sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Coeur Mining and Energy Fuels hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).