Vinto Ausmelt Construction Begins

SHANGHAI, Sep. 25 -- The civil works to install an Ausmelt furnace at Bolivian state-owned tin producer Empresa Metalurgica Vinto (EMV) will start this week, company head Ramiro Villavicencio told BNamericas. "Works will take nearly four months while at the same time the building's metallic structure and furnace will be built in Santa Cruz," Villavicencio said. "We are within the original schedule with works to finish in August 2011, so we are expecting to start up the furnace in September or October of that year," Villavicencio said.

In the short term, EMV could boost tin production by making use of the antimony plant adjacent to it. The latter smelter, also expropriated from Glencore subsidiary Sinchi Wayra, is due to be re-opened imminently. "The government has already paid US$900,000 for the project and we expect to be starting up operations at the plant by the end of 2010," Villavicencio said. The company is not yet sure whether it will begin processing tin concentrates or antimony concentrates. "It could be tin, to expand the smelter's production, or antimony, depending on how much we have and in accordance with the concentrate supply contracts," he said.

The Vinto tin smelter produced 5,745 tonnes of refined tin in the first half of this year, up 4.1% on the same period of 2009.