VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian diversified miner Teck Resources is moving ahead with the $4.5-billion to $5-billion second-phase development of its Quebrada Blanca (QB) copper mine, in northern Chile.
The company has submitted the social- and environmental-impact assessment for the project to the Tarapacá Environmental Authority.
"QB Phase 2 is a long-life asset that will operate through multiple price cycles and generate significant value for many years. Our regulatory submission outlines the significant economic and social benefits that this project would generate for the region, as well as extensive proposed environmental mitigation measures, including the first large-scale use of desalinated seawater for mining in Chile's Tarapacá region,” states president and CEO Don Lindsay.
Teck expects the proposed QB Phase 2 project to add another 25 years to the life of the existing mine as a large-scale concentrate-producing operation. It expects to publish an updated feasibility study, including capital and operating cost estimates for the project, in the first quarter of 2017.
It says a development decision will be reliant on regulatory approvals and market conditions, besides other considerations. Such a decision is unlikely to be made before mid-2018.
The new capital cost estimate will include a 140 000 t/d concentrator and related facilities; a new port facility and desalination plant; and concentrate and desalinated water pipelines. QB Phase 2 is expected to have a production capacity of more than 250 000 t of copper and 8 000 t of molybdenum in concentrate for the first ten years of mine life.
QB produced 39 100 t of copper in 2015.