In a year marked by challenges including staff availability and the Covid-19 pandemic, for the first time in 10 years of operation the Kinsevere SX-EW plant has exceeded its budget and cost containment targets. Kinsevere’s low grade ore high throughput helped ensure copper cathode production met budget.

MMG Kinsevere’s maintenance team, made up mostly of local employees, is determined to maintain and, where possible, outperform prior maintenance results. The local team had strategies in place to ensure plant availability in line with the budget. Close attention was paid to maintenance measures by addressing duty/stand by equipment and challenging planned shutdown by extending critical equipment life time to name just a few initiatives.

The net result is a production boost, yielding more than 1900 annual tonnes of additional copper. The end of the year maintenance availability was also above budget, achieving 96% compared with 95.6% in the prior year. This is a notable achievement as employee numbers were reduced during lockdown to minimise Covid-19 exposure.