Antofagasta Plc
Antofagasta Plc
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Pakistan's top court has ruled against mining giants Barrick Gold and Antofagasta in a long-running dispute with a provincial government over their right to develop a $US3.3B copper-gold deposit.
Barrick confirms that Pakistan's Supreme Court found an agreement by their Tethyan Copper joint venture to develop the Reko Diq mine in Baluchistan, SW Pakistan is invalid.
Chilean miner Antofagasta has suspended the development of the giant Antucoya copper mine in the Antofagasta region and terminated all the principal construction contracts for the project.
Antofagasta says the suspension has been ordered because of “the existing and potential levels of cost escalation” on the project. Antucoya was listed at $US1.3B when first approved for development in December 2011, a value that had risen to $1.7B by August this year.
Australian explorer Monax Mining has lined up two additional tenements considered prospective for copper-gold in South Australia under its target generation alliance with Chilean copper major Antofagasta.
The tenements, in the Algebuckina area in the state’s north, adjoin three tenements already held by Monax Alliance, the wholly owned subsidiary set up as the operational vehicle for the strategic alliance.
The five tenements comprise the Algebuckina Designated Project, 1,000km NW of Adelaide.
Chilean miner Antofagasta Minerals has submitted its $US600M Oxidos Encuentro copper project for environmental approval.
Antofagasta aims to start construction of the project in the Centinela Mining District in northern Chile in 2014 for initial production in 2016, averaging 50,000tpa copper cathodes over eight years.
Project manager Francisco Walther says the synergies between Oxidos Encuentro and its El Tesoro and Esperanza projects will “re-galvanise” the sector's mining potential.
World’s third largest miner Antofagasta has opted out of its agreement with Ormonde Mining for the La Zarza copper-gold project in Spain, saying a deposit of sufficient size and scale has not been identified.
Antofagasta entered into an option agreement for La Zarza in 2009, with the aim of exploring for additional copper resources.
The company had potential to earn an initial 51% interest by spending $US7M on exploration over three years.
Chilean mining giant Antofagasta says it still expects to reach its 2012 full year copper production target of 700,000t after lifting output over the first nine months of the year by 11.5% to 515,800t.
The company attributes the higher copper output to the increasing throughput at the Esperanza mine (Antofagasta 70%, Marubeni Corporation 30%) since operations began in 2011.
The world's No 3 copper mine, Collahuasi, has appointed Codelco's vice president for central-south operations Jorge Gomez Diaz as its new chief executive in a push to turn around the troubled Chilean operation.
Shareholders Anglo American, Xstrata and Japanese partner Mitsui stepped in, appointing interim co-chief executives and a recovery plan, after Collahuasi fell in 2011 to its lowest copper output since 2007 and this year has been hit by work stoppages, heavy rains and fatal accidents.
Copper industry heavyweight Diego Hernandez is betting on growth at home to boost Chilean miner Antofagasta as it battles to overcome trouble at its flagship mine.
Hernandez, who took the helm of Antofagasta just last month after stepping down as chief executive of Chilean state miner Codelco, says Antofagasta has no plans to hold back investment in its new wave of Chilean growth projects including the promising but costly $US1.7B Antucoya mine, despite uncertain markets.
With 1st half copper, gold and molybdenum production all up, big Chilean miner Antofagasta is well on track for full year 2012 copper production of 700,00t, with the new Marubeni Corp deal expected to take that to 800,000t by 2015.
Antofagasta, one of the world's largest copper producers/explorers, posted June half copper production up 16.5% on the 2011 half to 336,000t, mainly due to higher throughput at Esperanza, one of the company’s 4 producing mines.
Antofagasta board approved US$1.3 billion Antucoya copper project development in Chile’s Antofagasta Region.
Marubeni Corporation signed memorandum of understanding to become 30% partner in the project for $350M plus prorata funding of development costs. Final agreement due 2H 2012.