Name and Location
Las Bambas copper project, Apurímac region, Peru.

Client
The mine is a joint venture between multinational resource company MMG (62.5%), Hong Kong investment company Guoxin International Investment Corporation (22.5%) and China’s Citic Metal (15%).

Project Description
Las Bambas will be a world-class copper mine, with an initial production of 400 000 t/y of copper in concentrate, including significant gold, silver and molybdenum by-products, as well as first-quartile cash costs.

Ore will be mined at a rate of 51.1-million tons a year from three openpit mines – initially the Ferrobamba and then the Chalcobamba and Sulfobamba pits – and processed in a 140 000 t/d sulphide grinding/flotation concentrator.

The $1.47-billion Antapaccay expansion to the Tintaya operation has paved the way for the development of the major Las Bambas greenfield project.

Located 150 km apart, the Las Bambas and Antapaccay projects will benefit from important synergies. Concentrates from Las Bambas will be pumped through a 215 km pipeline to a molybdenum and filter plant, close to Tintaya-Antapaccay, and then transported on the same railroad to the Matarani port.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
The Las Bambas capital budget has been estimated at between $9-billion and $10-billion.

Duration
The project entered commercial production in July this this year, and will ramp up to 400 000 t of copper in 2017.

Latest Developments
The Las Bambas copper operation achieved commercial production on July 1, 2016.

MMG has reported that the ramp-up of the plant and commercial production has been achieved on schedule.

The Las Bambas copper mine is expected to produce between 250 000 t and 300 000 t of copper concentrate in 2016.

MMG has reported a solid March-quarter output as the mine ramps up to full production, producing 31 470 t of copper concentrate.

At full production, Las Bambas is expected to have a yearly nameplate capacity throughput of 51.1-million tonnes and will rank as one of the top copper-producing mines in the world.

The construction of the mine was completed in 2015, including the commissioning phase. Production of first copper concentrate, as part of commissioning activities, was achieved in November 2015.

MMG has started shipping Las Bambas concentrate from the newly completed Berth F facilities of Peru’s Port of Matarani. The first shipment of 10 000 t of concentrate was made in January 2016. Transporting the concentrate continued by way of the bimodal logistics system, consisting of truck and rail.

MMG expects the cost of mechanical completion of the Las Bambas project to between $1.9-billion and $2.4-billion.

Additional exploration work at Las Bambas, as at April, was primarily focused on geological and vein mapping between the Ferrobamba and Chalcobamba infrastructure corridor, in addition to conducting a geological review of the Sulfobamba deposit.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Yes.

Contact Details for Project Information
MMG, Andrea Atell, tel + 613 9288 0758 or email andrea.atell@mmg.com; or Jo Lynch, tel +613 9288 0027 or email jo.lynch@mmg.com.