Weatherly International share price dips on lower metal production

16th Oct 2013 10:15

Production was lower than expected at AIM-listed copper miner Weatherly International in the first quarter, although the group confirmed cash costs for the latest quarter were reduced. Chief Executive Officer Romd Webster argued that while the company had not yet seen increased metal production it had increased the level of mined ore 16% on the preceding quarter and cut unit costs a 13%. "Our efforts going forward are to maintain this trend," he added.Webster explained that Weatherly was "finalising procedural requirements" to drawdown on a project finance loan for its $91m development of the 17,000 tonnes-per-annum (TPA) Tschudi copper project in northern Namibia and would provide further details about terms and timeline once this "critical milestone" had been achieved.The development loan has been split into three tranches, with the Louis Dreyfus loan to be repaid to release the Louis Dreyfus security and enable drawdown of the second tranche of $80m with Orion Mine Finance, which will gain security over the assets. Shares in Weatherly were down 6.45% to 3.63p at 10:40 on Wednesday.OH