Central Asia Metals on track to up Kazakh copper output by 50 pct

By Dmitry Solovyov

ALMATY, Aug 11 (Reuters) - London-listed Central Asia Metals Plc (CAML) has begun an expansion of its Kounrad copper project in Kazakhstan and is set to meet its target of raising copper cathode output there by about 50 percent by 2016, the company's head said on Monday.

CAML produced 10,509 tonnes of copper at its Kounrad recovery plant in central Kazakhstan last year, 5 percent above target. Its output totalled 5,094 tonnes in the first half of 2014, a 4.9 percent increase year-on-year.

"Our production target this year is 11,000 tonnes," CAML Chief Executive Nick Clarke told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We've already started phase one of our expansion," he said, adding that output could hit 13,000 tonnes in 2015. "We would expect to start commissioning our plant next year. So in 2016 our target will be 15,000 tonnes of copper."

In May, CAML acquired the remaining 40 percent of the Kounrad project from Kazakh businessman Kenges Rakishev in return for a 20 percent stake in the company.

The company is now the sole owner of Kounrad, where it brought high-end technologies to recover copper from mining waste dumps dating to Soviet times.

CAML, which launched production at Kounrad in April 2012, will invest $35 million of its internally generated cash to finance the two-phase expansion.

In 2017, CAML plans to launch a pipeline that will bring the solution containing copper from dumps located to the west of the open-pit mine, Clarke (Toronto: CKI.TO - news) said. The plant is located to the east.

CAML went public in late 2010, raising $60 million in an initial public offering, Clarke said. He said the company had by now repaid to its shareholders $29 million of this sum in dividends.

The company is committed to paying back to shareholders a minimum of 20 percent of its gross attributable revenue as dividend, Clarke said. He said these payments had averaged 23 percent so far. (Editing by Dale Hudson)