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Slow Approvals May Delay Peru's Chinalco Copper Mine

iconSep 13, 2010 09:41
Source:SMM
delays over environmental approvals could hold up the Toromocho copper project

LIMA, Sep 10, 2010 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- Further delays over environmental approvals could hold up the Toromocho copper project, owned by the Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH, 2600.HK), or Chinalco, a senior official said Friday.

Toromocho is slated to be Peru's biggest copper mine by 2012, but like all mining projects in Peru it cannot proceed without the Mining Ministry's approval of its environmental impact study, also known as an EIA.

Gerald Wolfe, chief executive of Chinalco subsidiary Minera Chinalco Peru, said Friday he expected to get Toromocho's EIA approvals "very soon," but said further delays would "obviously" impact upon the project start date.

Wolfe, who was speaking at Peru's mining trade show Expomina, said mine construction work would take two and a half years, and could only begin after the EIA is approved.

This brings the mine's possible start date close to the end of 2012. Previously the company estimated mining would start in early 2012, but Wolfe said Friday the "rules of the game" had changed with the creation of Peru's Environmental Ministry in 2008. Although the new environment ministry is not charged with EIA approvals, it has established new minimum requirements for EIA studies.

Toromocho is expected to produce 250,000 metric tons of copper a year, as well as significant amounts of zinc and silver. Copper reserves are estimated at over 7.3 million tons. Chinalco has said it expects to invest $2.2 billion in the project up to 2011.

Peru is the world's second-largest producer of copper.
 

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