Portugal’s mining strategy may favour copper over lithium
Portugal already has the largest copper mine in the European Union, operated by Lundin Mining.
British-based Adriatic Metals has produced the first concentrate at its Vares silver project in central Bosnia, the company said on Wednesday.
Adriatic Metals, which had planned to start production at the Vares mine in January, produced the first concentrate on Tuesday but the plant’s official opening will be in March after six years of exploration and a $200 million investment.
The project will continue to ramp up processing capacity to about 65,000 metric tons a month by the fourth quarter of this year, the company said.
Production will be increased by blending high-grade stockpiled ore with lower grade stockpiles, it added.
Adriatic Metals expects to dig about 800,000 tons of polymetallic ore per year from the mine, producing about 65,000 tons of lead-silver concentrate and 90,000 tons of zinc concentrate, with annual ore export revenue of about 800 million Bosnian marka ($444 million).
(By Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Jason Neely and David Goodman)
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