Trigon Metals has shipped its first shipments of copper concentrate from the Kombat mine in Namibia.
The truckload contained 31 dry metric tonnes of concentrate, grading 20.41% copper and 265 g/t of silver.
The Kombat mine has now produced 400 tonnes of concentrate.
The copper concentrate has been delivered to Namibian warehouses owned by IXM, a Swiss base metal trading company owned by international mining company CMOC Group. Trigon signed a project financing deal with IXM in October 2021 for a US$5 million project finance facility.
In return, IXM will acquire 100% of the production from Kombat.
Work is also being undertaken at the mill, Trigon chief executive Jed Richardson said.
"Commissioning continues on all levels and, following the initial strong performance of the mill announced in January, we have been pushing the mill towards stronger recoveries and continuous operation," Richardson said.
"The mill is now hitting its stride, we are operating at a steady state 70% capacity, producing over 35 tonnes of concentrate per day."
Trigon is heading towards declaring commercial production, he added.
Combat produced its first copper concentrate at Kombat in early January, following the installation of new filter presses and the refurbishment of processing equipment a month earlier.
In January, Trigon said it anticipated total commercial production to launch in March.