SMM Analysis: Peruvian Minsur will invest at least $2 billion to expand copper and tin business

SHANGHAI, Sep 5 (SMM) - An executive of Peruvian mining company Minsur (MINSURI1.LM) spoke on Thursday, August 31, that the company has announced an investment of at least $2 billion within five years to expand its copper and tin business. At present, the company only produces copper products in Justa, and other mining projects in Peru are still in the exploration stage.

Data source: the company's 2022 annual report

Gonzalo Quijandria, director of Minsur's corporate affairs, said in a telephone interview with Reuters that Minsur will invest about $543 million in the construction of the underground project of the Justa mine (Minsur indirectly holds 60% of Justa's equity), which is jointly owned by the company and the Chilean mining company Copec (COPEC .SN).

Data source: the company's 2022 annual report

Quijandria said it would also invest $381 million to expand the processing plant and improve the Justa mining area, which began operations in 2021. According to official data, the mine produced 125,488 mt of copper products last year (including 96,400 mt of copper concentrate and 29,000 mt of copper cathode). The life of the mine is expected to be about 15 years. The average grade of copper concentrate is 1.61%, which is the world's seventh largest copper mine.

Minsur also operates the only tin mine in Peru, which accounts for about 9% of global tin metal production. Quijandria said Minsur plans to invest $462 million in its tin production line and another $100 million in tin exploration projects in the country. "They are continuing to invest, including a new tailings dam at the San Rafael mine and improvements to the Pisco smelter," the spokesman said. The specific tin production in 2022 of each mining area is shown in the table below.

Data source: the company's 2022 annual report

Minsur also plans to invest approximately $342 million to modernize its polymetallic producer Minera Raura. The figure below shows the company's metal output trends in recent years.

Data source: the company's 2022 annual report