Kazakhstan-focused copper miner KAZ Minerals mined three times as much copper ore last year as in the previous year, although that resulted in a lower volume of finished products as the quality of the ore was inferior and work at one of its smelters was disrupted by maintenance work.

The London-listed miner, previously known as Kazakhmys, said it mined 14.5m tonnes of copper ore, up more than 200 per cent from 2014, according to Financial Times.

However, copper in concentrate production dropped 1 per cent to 89,400 tonnes, while production of copper cathode, a very pure form of copper used in wires, dropped 1.2 per cent to 81,100 tonnes.

KAZ, which used to be the largest fully-integrated copper producer before it restructured in the last quarter of 2014, said these production volumes were in line with guidance.

Silver production dropped 9 per cent to 3.1m ounces, also due to lower grade ores being mined. Still, KAZ said this was 25 per cent ahead of guidance. The company produced 34,600 ounces of gold, the same as last year and in line with guidance.

The miner gave no revenue or profit figures.

The miner received a welcome leg up in August when the Kazakh central bank scrapped its dollar peg and allowed the tenge to float. The dollar immediately surged 22 per cent against the Kazakh currency, while KAZ Minerals’ shares jumped 17 per cent.

The depreciation of the tenge helps the company’s cost base and boosts its revenues in local currency as copper is sold in dollars. The dollar has climbed more than 98 per cent against the tenge since the peg was scrapped, touching an all-time high of 392 tenges per dollar last week.

However, the tenge’s weakness hasn’t been enough to counter the impact of sliding copper prices, which have been driven down by overproduction and weaker demand growth from China and other emerging markets.

Copper prices have more than halved over the last five years while KAZ Minerals’ shares have dropped more than 70 per cent in the last 18 months.

Photo: doosan-machinery.kz