Griffin Mining Ltd on Friday reported that its mine production fell in the fourth quarter and in all of 2022 due to a five-month intermittent shutdown in production during 2022, which only ended in November.

Griffin Mining shares rose 11% to 80.24 pence each in London on Friday afternoon.

Griffin is a mining company focused on China. Its flagship asset is the Caijiaying licence, an operating zinc, gold, silver and lead mine located 250 kilometres northwest of Beijing in Hebei Province.

Production was shut for five months in total during 2022. It was closed during Chinese New Year in early February, during the Winter Olympics which lasted from February 4 to February 20, and the subsequent Winter Paralympics which lasted from March 4 to March 13, with mining resuming on March 23 and processing on March 25.

Production was further suspended during the Chinese Communist National Party Congress from September 22 to November 17.

The company mined 228,510 tonnes of ore in the fourth quarter, down 14% from 267,304 tonnes in the third quarter. Processed ore fell 40% to 184,045 tonnes from 309,465 tonnes.

During 2022, mining contracted by 12% to 852,579 tonnes of ore from 971,492 in 2021, while procession decreased by 16% to 831,549 tonnes from 985,404 tonnes.

Chair Mladen Ninkov said: ‘The company has produced outstanding production numbers in the last quarter and for the full 2022 year in light of the five-month shut-down in production in 2022. It provides a revelatory glimpse of what the company can produce on an annualised basis in 2023 particularly in light of the record 138,000 tonne throughput in December 2022. We look forward to the year ahead with great excitement.’

Looking ahead, the company targets to increase production throughput to 1.5 million tonnes in 2023.

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