On February 7, ore was introduced through primary crushing and onto the stockpile with initial feed rates between 4,000t/h and 5,000t/h. On February 11, ore was introduced through to the first milling circuit.

Operation on ore continues, and will move into all other sections of the processing plant including producing copper concentrate. First Quantum is now focused on an efficient phased ramp-up for Cobre Panama continuing through 2019.