Antofagasta Minerals to invest US$1,000 million in 2013 and US$500 million in 2014
The Chile-based mining company Antofagasta Minerals will invest about US$1,000 million during 2013 and US$500 million in 2014 in surveys and capacity repositioning of their mine deposits, the president of the company informed in a report published last Sunday in a local newspaper.
The officer explained that these amounts are additional to the US$1,700 million Antofagasta has planned to invest in the Antucoya copper project which execution was temporarily withheld by end of last year to revise the costs and its possible increment in the future.
“We will be investing US$1,000 million in surveys or stay businesses (projects aimed at redeploying the mine capacity). For 2014, excluding Antucoya, US$500 million have been allocated for investment which could even increase if we have new projects”, the CEO of Antogasta, Diego Hernández, said to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio.
Hernández said that to his understanding the US$100,000 million investment portfolio of mining industry in Chile – the largest copper producer in the world – scheduled for 2020 might be going through certain delay. “Some projects will be postponed until costs are at a more normal level”, he commented.
In accordance with the executive – former CEO of state-owned copper producer Codelco – mining projects costs in Chile doubled if compared against six years ago conditions, not only due to the high disbursements for energy but also for the nil improvement in productivity.
The company, which shares are listed in London, admitted at the beginning of the year that their costs will step up mainly for their key mines Esperanza and Los Pelambres and that the 2013 production would not increment after achieving about 700,000 tons of copper last year.
Source: Terra.cl
