Pan Pacific Copper to Raise Funds for Chile Copper Development

Pan Pacific Copper, jointly owned by Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui Mining & Smelting, announced on Wednesday the firm starts to raise funds for the development of the Caserones copper and molybdenum deposit in Chile. The initial investment is estimated at US$ 1.86 billion. PPC increases self-supply ratio of copper ore from 18% to 40% by the development.

PPC have conducted economical evaluation since the interest acquisition in May 2006. The firm confirmed the feasibility decided to step forward the project while the project is still subject to environmental approval.

The deposit is estimated to operate for 30 years and to produce 3.6 million tonnes of copper and 88,000 tonnes and molybdenum. The firm plans to produce annual 150,000 tonnes of copper concentrate, 30,000 tonnes of electrolytic copper and 3,000 tonnes of molybdenum during first 5 years since the start of operation in planned mid-2013.