The difficulties are never-ending for copper producer CuDeco, which is facing further disruption at its Rocklands mine thanks to extreme storms in Queensland.

CuDeco’s shares (ASX:CDU) slipped 4.4 per cent to 22c just before midday on Tuesday.

Torrential rains from last Friday’s storm in the Cloncurry region have washed out a section of the access road to the Rocklands site. Roads and civil infrastructure on site have also been damaged.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned on Friday the region would experience heavy rainfall, flooding and locally damaging winds.

The forecast was for 75mm to 150mm of rainfall, with isolated falls of up to 300mm possible with thunderstorms.

Skeleton crews have been transported to and from the Rocklands site by helicopter to coordinate site repairs, clean up and surplus water management activities.

CDU shares over the past three months.
CDU shares over the past three months.

“While site conditions were poor immediately following the storm, site dewatering and clean-up activities are well underway, and we should be in a position to recommence mining and production activities by the mid to latter part of this week,” site senior executive Adam Norton said.

A spokesperson for CuDeco told Stockhead that there will be minimal impact on first-quarter production at Rocklands.

CuDeco was ordered late last year to suspend operations at its Rocklands copper mine after “a number of issues” were identified with the processing plant.

Production restarted a few weeks later and the company appointed Mr Norton to ensure Rocklands reaches consistent nameplate capacity.

CuDeco is expecting its production numbers to improve in 2018.

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