MZI Resources Ltd. provided an update on operating performance at its mineral sands operations in Western Australia. In December 2017, MZI commenced modification works on its Keysbrook processing facilities and Picton Mineral Separation Plant. These works were undertaken to grow MZI's mineral throughput capacity from approximately 4Mtpa to 5.25Mtpa in order to reduce unit costs and improve operating margins across the business. MZI completed these works in March 2018, with the modifications being implemented in parallel with day to day operations in order to maintain cash flow and satisfy customer shipments. A number of planned shutdowns were undertaken to make the modifications with each new element commissioned individually. A combined commissioning process was then required to integrate the entire, uprated production chain. In practice the commissioning process took considerably longer than originally anticipated, with associated disruption and unplanned downtime. Furthermore, this situation had an adverse impact on operational performance at the Wet Concentrator Plant over the entire March quarter, with Keysbrook only recently achieving 'steady-state' throughput and recovery rates in mid-June, compared with the initial expectation of mid-April. Delays in achieving specific, sustainable production rates set as key conditions to drawdown Tranche B of RCF's Term Loan Facility ($7.5 million), mean that MZI has now approached RCF to seek a waiver of these conditions.

The company provided production guidance for the year 2018. For the year, total saleable production for 2018, remains in line with previous guidance of 70 kt to 80 kt.