Start-Up of New Copper Mine
Antofagasta Holdings PLC
9 November 1999
START-UP OF ANTOFAGASTA'S NEW COPPER MINE
Commissioning begins at Los Pelambres
LONDON: Tuesday, 9 November 1999 - Antofagasta Holdings P.L.C. (ANTO.L), the
UK-listed mining group based in Chile, reports that commissioning has begun at
the Los Pelambres copper mine located in Chile's IV Region. Development of
the US$1.36 billion Los Pelambres project began in November 1997. During the
development phase, nearly 50 million tonnes of surface rock was removed from
the area of the open pit to gain access to the ore and 13 kilometres of
underground tunnels were constructed for the conveyor system. In August 1999,
crushing of ore from the open pit began and on October 29 the ore started to
flow along part of the conveyor system to the concentrator stockpile.
Commissioning started at the concentrator on October 30 producing copper
concentrate to be pumped along a 120-kilometre pipeline to a new port facility
at Los Vilos for filtering and shipping to overseas smelters. First
production of filtered concentrate at the Port is expected at end November
with first shipments at end December or early January 2000. When Los
Pelambres reaches its capacity of 85,000 tpd by March 2000, it will produce an
average of 271,000 tonnes a year of copper in concentrates in the first five
years and 246,000 tonnes per year over the 30-year mine life. Cash costs over
the mine life are expected to average around 43 cents per pound of copper,
placing it among the lowest cost producers world-wide.
Los Pelambres has proven and probable reserves of 887 million tonnes of ore
grading 0.77% copper and 0.023% molybdenum and total resources of over 3
billion tonnes at an estimated grade of 0.65% copper. Only 31% of the total
geological resources are included in the 30-year mine plan. Antofagasta holds
a 60% equity interest in the project and the remaining 40% is held by a
consortium of Japanese groups, comprising Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd.
(15%), Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (10%), Marubeni Corporation (8.75%),
Mitsubishi Corporation (5%) and Mitsui and Co. Ltd. (1.25%). Antofagasta's
principal operations are mining, rail and road transportation and water
distribution. It also holds a 33.6% investment in Quinenco S.A., a
diversified industrial and financial group operating in Latin America.
Antofagasta has a current market capitalisation of approximately £830 million.
Enquiries:
Philip Adeane, Managing Director Email: itrevor@antofagasta.co.uk
Hussein Barma, Chief Financial Officer Email: hbarma@antofagasta.co.uk
Neil Herbert, Financial Controller Email: nherbert@antofagasta.co.uk
Antofagasta Holdings Tel: +44 171 374 8091
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