Antofagasta, majority-owned by Chile’s Luksic household, one of many nation’s wealthiest, tasks native investments for over $7.5 billion within the subsequent 5 years. The miner is already engaged on the $4.4 billion Nueva Centinela venture, which is able to add 144,000 tonnes copper-equivalent a yr to its total manufacturing. The growth venture, authorised in December, additionally contains growing the present molybdenum plant’s capability and a brand new growth of the Esperanza Sur pit, with the introduction of latest autonomous vehicles.
Antofagasta lately opened a $2 billion desalination plant for its flagship mine, Los Pelambres, the primary to function with desalinated water in an space of the nation that has suffered a 15-year drought.
The miner additionally expects to acquire all permits to begin engaged on the $1.2 billion extension of its Zaldívar copper mine, which might permit it to proceed in operations via 2051.
On prime of all these tasks, Antofagasta expects to allocate between $40 million and $50 a yr in upkeep work at its property in Peru, the USA and Canada.
Aiming excessive
Antofagasta, Chile’s largest copper miner after the state-owned Codelco, has set an formidable aim of changing into one of many world’s prime ten producers of the steel, primarily utilized in electrical automobile batteries and building.
Lately, the corporate has made a number of strides towards this aim, with one of many key investments in 2023 being the acquisition of a 19% stake in Peru’s Minera Buenaventura for an undisclosed sum.
The miner has additionally a presence within the US, via its subsidiary Twin Metals. The unit has been making an attempt to construct an underground copper-nickel mine and processing facility alongside the shores of Birch Lake and the South Kawishiwi River for over a decade. The venture suffered a significant blow final yr, when the Joe Biden administration cancelled Twin Metals’ two long-standing mineral leases and imposed a 20-year moratorium on the encircling space.
Antofagasta has been preventing to get the licences again. The Wall Avenue Journal lately recommended the corporate would have higher choices of profitable the case if Donald Trump get reelected.
Talking to Diario Financiero, Arriagada famous that he doesn’t consider so. “Our venture within the US is presently within the means of defending the titles to our mining property within the courts and subsequently, this doesn’t depend upon the administration in energy,” he instructed the Chilean newspaper.
The chief famous the corporate will work with any administration and that he believes Antofagasta has the fitting to develop the venture or to submit a modified utility to be reviewed and authorised.
“We expect that Twin Metals is a invaluable venture as a result of it permits native manufacturing of copper and different key metals within the US for native provide (…) It has worth in at this time’s world in mild of the challenges we see each when it comes to nationwide safety and when it comes to power change and local weather change,” Arriagada stated. “We are going to proceed to advertise this and we are going to train our rights within the US courts.”