Fourth-quarter copper production from Taseko's operating Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine in British Columbia was 29 million pounds, which took the full-year production to 112Mlb.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Rene Cartier said the fourth-quarter production result was below BMO's forecast of 34.2Mlb.

"Despite major disruption to the highway and rail infrastructure in southern BC from severe rainstorms in November, we were still able to realise 24Mlb of copper sales in the fourth quarter," Taseko president and CEO Stuart McDonald said. Full-year copper sales were 105Mlb.

Cartier said that BMO had factored in the infrastructure issues and that sales beat their forecast of 22Mlb.

Taseko noted that transit times for rail shipments were "gradually improving" and the miner expected to reduce copper inventories in the first quarter of 2022.

The miner's production in the fourth quarter was also hit by lower grades and recoveries, McDonald added.

"Increased oxidisation and pyrite content in this ore has been resulting in lower recoveries, which we believe is a short-term issue that will be resolved," he said, noting that ore quality is also likely to improve.

Operations were further complicated in December by extreme snowfall and temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius, which affected mine equipment and mill availabilities, but this too has since improved, the CEO said.

"With the copper price today over US$4.50 per lb, 30c higher than the average price in 2021, we will expect to maintain strong operating margins," he said.

On January 13, financial-services company Jefferies said that it expected the copper market to shift into a "meaningful deficit" in 2023 and that the copper price "should go" higher. The group forecasted an average of at least US$5.50/lb from 2022-2025.

Taseko's molybdenum production and sales for the year were 2Mlb.

The company is listed on the TSX, NYSE, and LSE.