Shares in Equinox Minerals have risen after the copper miner signed a five-year offtake deal and extended its quarterly loss to nearly $61 million.
The latest offtake agreement with Konkola Copper Mines together with Equinox's existing long-term offtake deal with Chambishi Copper Smelter now accounts for a large majority of Lumwana's budgeted project.
The Lumwana mine is located in Zambia.
Under the latest offtake deal, Konkola will purchase between 70,000 and 80,000 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate each year with an option to buy more.
Prices for the five-year offtake deal will be based on annual Japanese smelter benchmark terms.
Konkola is majority owned by Vedanta Resources, a London-listed metals and mining company.
Meantime, Equinox reported a consolidated net loss of $60.6 million for the three months to the end of March.
This compares with a net loss of $8.2 million recorded in the previous corresponding period.
Equinox said the latest quarterly result was impacted by derivative instrument fair value losses of $98.1 million.
At the end of the reporting period, Equinox had cash resources of $44.2 million, undrawn facilities totalling $70 million and project and fleet debt of $642.7 million.
Subsequent to the reporting period, Equinox raised a total of $C184 million ($A211 million).
Just under 24,000 tonnes of copper was sold during the quarter.
Shares in Equinox were up 25 cents to $2.96 at 11:11 AEST.