Xstrata Copper Optimistic About Its Peru Copper Projects

SANTIAGO, Apr 07, 2010 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- Xstrata Copper remains confident that two large copper projects under development in southern Peru will significantly increase the company's overall copper output, Xstrata Copper Chief Executive Charlie Sartain said.

The two projects are Antapaccay and Las Bambas.

"The potential is for Las Bambas to become a major world-class operation," Sartain said in a speech at the 9th World Copper conference.

He said an intensive drilling program at Las Bambas has led to mineral resources of 1.1 billion tons with an average grade of 0.77% copper.

The Las Bambas project is expected to produce an average of 400,000 tons of copper per year for the life of the mine and to cost some $4.2 billion as an investment, the company said.

Sartain said the company expects to submit the environmental-impact study for the project in the second quarter of this year.

The company expects approval for the environmental-impact study by the end of the year, he added, with construction to start in 2011.

Sartain said the company expects to gain government approval for the environmental-impact study for the Antapaccay project within two months. The company submitted that study late last year.

The company expects that project to be commissioned by mid-2012. The closeness of the project to the currently operating Tintaya mine is expected to allow the company to take advantage of economies of scale, Sartain added.

The Antapaccay project is expected to require an investment of $1.4 billion and to produce an average of 160,000 metric tons a year of copper for at least 20 years, the company says.

Sartain said in his speech that the company plans to increase overall copper output by 60% to 1.5 million tons a year by 2015.

Xstrata Copper is a unit of Anglo-Swiss mining company Xstrata PLC.