Inmet acquires rest of Cayeli

Inmet Mining (IMN-T) consolidated its ownership of the Cayeli underground copper-zinc mine in eastern Turkey by purchasing the Turkish government’s 45% minority stake for a little more than US$49 million.

Inmet, which now owns all of the mine, emerged as the preferred bid in a privatization auction held a few months ago. Cayeli has a remaining life of less than 12 years based on current processing capacity rates and ore reserves, which at the end of 2003 totalled 15.9 million tonnes grading 3.6% copper and 5.6% zinc, plus 0.6 gram gold and 44 grams silver per tonne. Additional resources, all inferred, stood at 3.2 million tonnes of 3.8% copper and 5.9% zinc.

Cayeli’s revised production targets for 2004 are 39,000 tonnes copper and 40,000 tonnes zinc at a cash cost of US47 per lb. copper, net of byproduct credits. In the first half of the year, the mine produced 17,600 tonnes copper and 19,700 tonnes zinc at a cash cost of US55 per lb. copper and a total cost of US60 per lb.