PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Cobre Panama copper project, being developed by dual-listed First Quantum Minerals, is 72% complete and due for first concentrate production early in 2019.
Project manager Gavin Ashley told delegates at the Latin America Downunder conference, in Perth, that the process plant would be commissioned by the second half of this year, with project construction likely to be completed before the end of the year.
First Quantum in February announced a 15% increase in production capacity at Cobre Panama, with the project now expected to process some 85-million tonnes a year of ore, to deliver 350 000 t/y of copper concentrates.
Ashley noted that the company was targeting the production of 150 000 t of copper in concentrate during 2019, ramping up to between 270 000 t to 300 000 t in 2020.
By 2021, the mine was expected to deliver its targeted 350 000 t/y of copper in concentrate, treating 85-million tonnes of ore a year.
Ashley told delegates that the Cobre Panama project had been designed with a final upgrade figure of 100-million tonnes a year in mind, and in some areas, First Quantum had already invested in the upgrade potential.
He said that the company would assess the debottlenecking and optimisation of Cobre Panama during the ramp-up and operations, to delineate where further capital investment was required to increase production, should the market demand the Cobre Panama product grow.