Chinalco starts $1.3bn expansion of Peru copper mine
BEIJING – Aluminum Corp of China, known as Chinalco, at the weekend said it had started work on a $1.3-billion expansion of its Toromocho copper mine in central Peru.
The investment will increase the mine's copper output by 45% by 2020, with the value of production exceeding $2-billion annually, Chinalco Chairman Ge Honglin said at a groundbreaking ceremony in Peruvian capital Lima late last week, according to a company statement issued on Saturday.
The statement gave no tonnage figures, but China's official Xinhua news agency said Chinalco wanted the expansion to take Toromocho's copper concentrate processing capacity to 157 000 t/d and annual refined copper output to 300 000 t.
China is the world's biggest copper consumer, while Peru, whose President Martin Vizcarra also attended the ceremony, is the second-biggest producer of the metal after South American neighbour Chile.
Chinalco is China's largest state-owned aluminium producer but also has some copper assets, including in China's southwestern Yunnan province.
It took control of Toromocho in 2007, bringing the project on stream in late 2013. The company had agreed a preliminary deal in November 2016 to take the development into a second phase through the $1.3-billion expansion.
The project, which is mined for silver and molybdenum as well as copper, contains 1.526-billion tonnes of ore, according to Chinalco's local unit Minera Chinalco Peru. The average copper content is 0.48%.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation