Chilean miner Antofagasta plans to invest $1.7bn in the expansion of its Los Pelambres mine, up from the original projected cost of $1.3bn, due to additional work related to the project.
Completion of the project is now expected in the early second half of 2022, the miner said in a statement on Jan 20. The additional costs will be toward a desalination plant and a pipeline at an investment of $235mn, apart from the $140mn which will be related to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said without disclosing further details. The marine works associated with the inlet and outlet pipes to the desalination plant will be resized to allow for expanded water flow at 800 liters per second.
The company’s copper production fell by 4.7pc to 733,900mt in 2020. Output from Los Pelambres alone declined by 1pc to 359,600mt in 2020, from 363,400mt produced in 2019, the miner said.
Chile’s copper production fell by 2.1pc to 493,538mt in November this year, from 504,349mt in the same month of 2019, according to data by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (Inei). The country’s production is expected to rise by 0.6pc to 5.8mn mt in the full year 2020. Copper prices reached $3.63/lb on Jan 20, up by 0.35pc compared to the prior day, according to the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco).