Christel Bories, Chief Executive Officer of Eramet, casts her shadow on a wall with Eramet logos as she delivers as speech during a visit at the battery recycling pilot plant as part of the ReLieVe Project (Recycling Li-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles) by Eramet and Suez, during its inauguration in Trappes, near Paris, France, November 14, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

May 27 (Reuters) – French mining and metallurgic group Eramet on Wednesday said it had partially restarted production of heavy mineral concentrate at its plant in Senegal, as it seeks to mitigate a hit to its revenue from a fire that occurred in February.

The company said the affected plant now operates at around one-third of its nominal capacity. It aims to return to full production level by the first quarter of 2027, following reconstruction of damaged facilities.

Having paused its original mineral sands production target, Eramet now sees an output of between 300,000 and 400,000 metric tons of heavy mineral concentrate in 2026, versus 900,000 tons before the fire.

The company’s shares fell around 1.5% in early trading, pushing their year-to-date losses to 5.3%.