On July 17, Turquoise Hill Resources announced its second quarter production for Oyu Tolgoi. “Oyu Tolgoi’s second quarter production results were as planned. Ore treated in the second quarter was impacted by a scheduled five-day maintenance shutdown in May, which was successfully completed. Concentrator throughput for the first half of 2017 continued to perform well as did material mined,” said Jeff Tygesen, CEO of Turquoise Hill. In the second quarter, material mined increased 3.5 percent compared to the first quarter, while grades for the quarter were flat. Copper and gold production for the second quarter was in-line with the previous quarter production despite the planned maintenance shutdown. Sales of copper in the second quarter decreased 5.6 percent over the previous quarter due to lower concentrate volumes, the company explained. Gold sales in the second quarter decreased 28.1 percent due to sales in the first quarter including some higher-grade concentrate from the fourth quarter of 2016. Oyu Tolgoi is expected to produce 130,000 to 160,000 tons of copper and 100,000 to 140,000 ounces of gold in concentrates in 2017. Open-pit operations are expected to mine in Phases 4 and 6 during the year. In addition, stockpiled ore will continue to be processed during 2017, the company reported.