It said the third ball mill was expected to increase milling capacity at the Copper Mountain mine from 40,000 tonnes per day to 45,000tpd.

CMM's production guidance was recently increased to 90-100 million pounds copper-equivalent a year.

It had produced 98.2Mlb Cu-eq in 2020 and is owned 75% by Copper Mountain in a joint venture with Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

Copper Mountain plans to incorporate the New Ingerbelle deposit to nearly double mine life at CMM, expand the mill again to 65,000tpd and start production at its Eva copper project in Queensland, Australia.

A formal construction decision for Eva would be made before year-end, the company said in a presentation this month.

Eva was expected to produce an average annual 100Mlb of copper and 14,000 ounces of gold over 15 years, according to a 2020 bankable feasibility study.

Copper Mountain started the quarter with C$144.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, plus restricted cash of $46.7 million.

Its shares (TSX: CMMC) have tripled over the past 12 months and closed up 7.7% yesterday to $3.06, capitalising it at $635 million (US$499 million).

The company's share price surge has put it in the 2021 TSX30, a list of the 30 top-performing stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange over a three-year period, announced last week.