subject: Worldwide Quarry Projects Focus On Southern Cone [print this page] Countries in the Southern Cone show a real dance of millions with regards to mining investments, with several metallic and non-metallic projects positioned among the most important ones at world level. The world main mining machinery companies are strongly investing in copper, precious metals, and fertilizer projects, among other, which reflect the region attraction and potential.
The good moment the commodity industry is going through, driven by the favorable demand expectations from emerging countries to meet their development requirements has promoted this dynamism. This figure whirlpool not only corresponds to the large variety of greenfield projects and expansions being carried out, but also to two other key factors: the development of more and more complex deposits, with lower grade and/or of more difficult access, and the increase in prices of basic inputs such as energy, steel, and even engineering services and skilled human resources.
For instance, the Canadian company Barrick recently increased its investment estimates for future Pascua Lama gold sites and Cerro Casale from approximately US$3.2 billion to US$3.6 billion for the former, and from US$4.2 billion to near US$5.25 billion, for the latter. Manpower cost and commodity prices were part of the reasons mentioned.
Although a few years ago these figures would have made the concretizing of many of these mega-projects questionable, currently there are many mega-projects in the region whose costs are thousands of millions. The mining plan includes an open pit operation at 4,200 to 5,200 masl altitude, which will produce two types of materials: oxides and sulphides. These will be treated through conventional gold recovery methods, including flotation.
In Argentina, construction started at the end of 2010, and it is focused on dirt moving, opening of a tunnel, and the infrastructure Amarillo camp to accommodate around 3,000 persons during the construction stage. Last April, construction of storage platforms and milling areas was about to be completed, making the processing plant construction possible.
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On the other hand, construction of the Barriales camp (Chile) shows an important progress. Also, the mining machinery company (construction chute) has informed that more than 45% of pre-production capital has already been engaged. Operation is still expected for 2013 first half.
Some of the company most important mega-projects are in Peru, such as Antapaccay, in Cuzco Province. In 2010, Xstrata Board of Directors approved an investment for US$1.47 billion for the development of this project within the framework of a major operation expansion in the Tintaya copper mine, located at 10 Km distance. Thanks to this closeness, the project will benefit with part of the existing infrastructure in the said operation. Peruvian authorities recently approved the project social and environmental impact study.
This project is controlled by the Chinese company Minmetals and involves an investment of around US$2.5 billion. The current mining plan foresees an open cut exploitation and processing through flotation. Mineral transportation will be through an ore slurry pipeline to the filtering plant. Average production is estimated in 144,000 tpa copper and 82.000 oz gold, with 200,000 tpa copper production during the first year.
Not only copper and precious metals attract the largest investments. Another mega-project which already started construction is Potasio Ro Colorado, property of the Brazilian multinational Vale. The Ro Colorado salt deposit is located south of the City of Mendoza, Argentina, near the border with the Neuqun Province. The current mining plan includes extraction of potassium chloride through dissolution in order to extract the mineral to the surface from layers located 1 Km below surface. This extraction process pumps hot water to the mineral level in order to dissolve the salt mixture forming the layers (potassium chloride and sodium chloride).
