Pan Pacific Copper to Launch FS for Caserones Copper Mine

Japanese largest copper smelter, Pan Pacific Copper, which is joint venture of Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui Mining & Smelting, announced on Wednesday the firm starts feasibility study to develop Caserones copper deposit in Chile for around 9 billion yen after completion of pre-feasibility study. The firm conducts drilling from September to December 2009 to find the resources, facility design and development cost. The firm estimates the resources of sulfide ore is 1.07 billion tonnes in the deposit after the pre-feasibility study. The ore resource contains 0.34% of copper and 106 ppm of molybdenum. The firm estimates the reserve is 280 million tonnes of ore with 0.30% of copper. The firm would build production facility at the deposit from January 2010 to August 2012 for US$ 1.7 billion, after the firm gets positive result from the study. The firm would start the operation in January 2012 for electrolytic copper and in September 2012 for copper and molybdenum ore. The firm expects the mine life is 26 years through 2037 to produce 3.6 million tonnes of copper and 75,000 tonnes of molybdenum. The firm also purchases around 130,000 tonnes of copper concentrate from the mine. The firm produces annual 20,000 tonnes of electrolytic copper and 3,000 tonnes of molybdenum at the site in Chile.