BHP kicks off $10.8bn plan to prevent Chile copper slump
BHP Group will kick off a massive $10.8-billion investment programme in Chile with the overhaul of an ageing copper plant as the world’s most valuable mining company battles declining ore quality.
As part of a site visit Tuesday by Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel, Melbourne-based BHP said in a statement that it would enter the $2-billion-plus plant upgrade into environmental processing soon.
While BHP’s overall investment pipeline in Chile over the next decade is nothing new, Tuesday’s announcement confirms the overhaul of the Escondida concentrator as the first step in the plan.
The scale of spending needed just to keep BHP’s Chilean production from falling shows how tough a task it will be for the industry to meet growing demand for the wiring metal in the energy transition and data-center boom.
BHP’s pipeline in Chile also includes an entirely new plant at Escondida, which could cost anywhere from $4.4-billion to $5.9-billion, according to a presentation late last year. Also being looked at is new leaching technology and a possible restart of the Cerro Colorado mine.
The projects would see BHP produce at an average annual rate of about 1.4-million metric tons next decade in Chile. Without the investments, that output would drop to about 900 000 t.
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