Cobre adds 300 tonnes of copper monthly
- Cobre signed ore purchase contracts to add 300 tonnes of copper cathode monthly.
- The agreements expand plant production without changing existing guidance figures.
- The deal uses underutilised plant capacity to increase cash flow.
Cobre (ASX:CBE) executed third-party ore purchase agreements with two regional copper oxide miners to boost processing volumes in Chile.
The contracts deliver 50,000 to 75,000 tonnes of copper oxide ore per month, exceeding current underground head grades.
Cobre CEO Adam Wooldridge commented, "The current underground operation will progressively transition through 2027 into a substantially larger open-pit operation, and third-party ore fills that gap—keeping the SX-EW plant at materially higher utilisation throughout the transition rather than allowing throughput to drop between the two production sources.”
The company stated that the incremental ore carries no additional mining or development costs while spreading fixed plant expenses across a larger tonnage base.
The additional processing capacity utilises open space at the Sierra Atacama SX-EW plant without altering underlying production guidance.
Following the announcement, the Cobre share price was unchanged at $0.39.
The transaction aims to strengthen unit economics ahead of a planned transition to open-pit mining operations in 2027.
The plant serves as a regional processing hub for small-to-mid-scale copper oxide miners in Chile's Antofagasta region.
