250,000 tons every 90 days is pretty reasonable. If you assume 1% copper content in the ore and 99% other material, it only needs about 270,000 tons of ore move

250,000 tons every 90 days is pretty reasonable. If you assume 1% copper content in the ore and 99% other material, it only needs about 270,000 tons of ore movement a day, which is a few bucket-wheel excavators worth of 24/7 output.