Name and Location
El Morro copper/gold project, Atacama region, Chile.

Client
Sociedad Contractual Minera El Morro, a joint venture between Goldcorp (70%) and New Gold (30%).

Project Description
El Morro is an advanced stage gold/copper property, located about 80 km east of Vallenar, in the Atacama region of north-central Chile, which, at December 31, 2012, had proven and probable reserves in situ totalling 6.7-million ounces of gold and 4.9 billion pounds of copper.

Two principal zones of gold/copper mineralisation have been identified to date, the El Morro and La Fortuna zones.
The El Morro project currently considers the mining and milling of sulphide copper and gold ore from the La Fortuna mineral deposit through a 90 000 t/d concentrator. 

The plant design includes a crushing plant, a semiautogenous grinding circuit and a rougher flotation and regrind circuit, as well as cleaner and scavenger flotation banks.

Additional project-related infrastructure includes a desalination plant, a power plant and a concentrate filtration plant.

The construction of a new access route from the project to the Pan American highway is also considered, with the route serving as the concentrate and water pipeline route and the preferred location for the project power line.

Water supply is planned to be sourced from a reverse-osmosis desalination plant that will produce 740 l/s of agricultural-quality water, which will be conveyed to site along a 193-km-long water pipeline.  Concentrate will be transferred through a pipeline to a concentrate filter plant at the port site for overseas shipment.

Value
$3.9-billion.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Chile’s court of appeals has preventively frozen Goldcorp's El Morro copper and gold mine while it adjudicates an appeal by indigenous communities, in a new setback for the troubled project. The project was due to begin operations in 2017.

The $3.9-billion mine was given the green light in October, after Chile's Supreme Court froze its environmental permit in 2012 until the company fully consulted the local Diaguita community.

The Diaguita say the consultation, based on an International Labor Organisation convention, was not properly conducted. They also say the mine is planned on what they deem as their sacred ancestral land and fear it could pollute a local river.

Goldcorp said in October that it would carefully consider the most appropriate next steps to take to develop the El Morro project, to satisfy the long-term needs of all interested parties.

El Morro is one of several mining and power projects that have suffered setbacks in Chile, the world's No 1 copper producer, where environmental and indigenous groups are increasingly taking their complaints to court.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Initial production from the mine was expected in 2017 with full production expected in 2018; however, construction at the mine was halted in April 2012 after the Supreme Court of Chile suspended the approval of the environmental permit for the project until the company had fully consulted the community.

Contact Details for Project Information
Goldcorp investor relations VP Jeff Wilhoit, tel +1 604 696 3074, fax +1 604 696 3001 or email info@goldcorp.com.
New Gold VP corporate development, Hannes Portmann, tel 1 416 324 6014 or email info@newgold.com