Western Copper and Gold Corp T.WRN

Issues persist at Bingham Canyon

[Riotintoe]

From Rio Tinto's 4th quarter production release

" Kennecott Mined copper production was 35% lower than the fourth quarter of 2023. This was primarily due to reduced head grade caused by geotechnical instabilities in the pit wall that impacted the mining sequence and increased the usage of lower grade stockpiled ore, as first identified in our Second Quarter Operations Review. As detailed at our Investor Seminar in December, we have revised our mine plan with smaller benches, lower bench stack height and step outs, and increased waste movement to unload the area around the faults. We are focusing on our overheads and contractor management costs while identifying efficiencies in our truck and excavator fleet. We are also supplementing our smelter with third party concentrate (5.7 thousand tonnes in the fourth quarter) to maintain throughput. Production will be impacted in 2025 and 2026 in line with the annualised mine production rate from the last three quarters of 2024, with slight improvement expected in 2026. Meanwhile, we continue to review future options for the open pit and underground

Current plan is for underground (northwall in the pit) is slated to end in 2033.  As I've said several times, Rio Tinto needs to replace this mine and 55%  of Resolution is not going to cut it if Rio Tinto is serious about becoming a top-tier copper producer. (Not to mention the gold production lost at Bingham.... Resolution has virtually none).

[EvenSteven27]

Thanks for sharing this, Rio. This does seem to bode well for WRN in the longterm. In the meantime, I've reached out to Sandeep. I'm not happy with this week's performance and dilution by the board. I'll share if I get a response. 

[Sooner]

Thanks Rio - tell your compadres over their at Rio to make a move on WRN already!