In Commodity News 15/04/2015
Chilean state copper giant Codelco expects no significant gain in production through 2020 despite plans to invest $25 billion in its mines over the next five years, CEO Nelson Pizarro said.
Speaking at the CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago, Pizarro said Codelco will invest around $5 billion annually through 2019 largely to replace exhausted mine capacity.
These investments will maintain production from Codelco’s mines at around 1.7 million mt/year, Pizarro said.
Codelco also plans to begin construction of a new 100,000 mt/d concentrator plant to process sulfide resources from its Radomiro Tomic mine by year-end once it obtains environmental permits, with ramp-up beginning in 2019, the executive said.
Codelco data, however, shows that in 2018 output will fall below 1.6 million mt, compared to 1.672 million mt last year.
The development of a new mine level at the century-old El Teniente mine is running 38 months behind schedule Pizarro said.
But he played down reports that Codelco will lose its position as the world’s largest producer of copper to Freeport McMoRan as the latter expands its Cerro Verde mine in Peru.
“One competes for profitability not who produces most,” the executive said, noting that Codelco plans to contribute $10 billion to Chile’s state coffers based on current copper prices.
