The mining company Southern Copper announced that by mid-2021 it plans to start the production phase of the Tía María project in the Arequipa region of Peru.
The vice president of finance for the mining company, Raúl Jacob, explained that he expects construction permits to be carried out this year, and construction begins in 2019, “expecting to have production starting in 2021.”
Tía María considers the construction of an open pit mine and a production of 120,000 tons of copper per year.
Studies indicate that there are 638 million tons of ore with an average copper grade of 0.39%.
It is estimated that the initiative will have a total investment of approximately US $ 1.4 billion.
Jacob mentioned that the construction of the Tía María project will require 3,600 workers, without considering the additional 10,800 jobs that are generated indirectly.
Currently, Southern Copper said they have completed the engineering work and are awaiting the approval of the environmental impact study.
During the first months of 2017, the Peruvian government projected the start of the production phase at Tía María 2020, which was postponed for one year.
At the beginning of July, the company announced that the mining canon of Arequipa would have increased from 127 million soles (US $ 38.7 million) to 400 million soles (US $ 122 million) per year, if the mining project were in operation.
Comments