Southern Copper Corp expects to allocate between $60 and $70 million to exploration activities in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador this year, some 20% of which will be executed in Peru, Edgard Corrales, Exploration Manager for the region, told MinerAndina.
In Peru, this represents around 30,000 m of drilling in greenfield exploration and around 20,000 m in brownfield exploration, a similar estimate to last year, with a tendency to increase compared to the previous ones.
Thus, the company with over 50 years operating in Peru –including changes in its main shareholder–, continues to expand its interest in the south American region other than Peru, but with an important change of focus.
“Previously, our goal in exploration was to generate projects, now our main focus is the acquisition of advanced projects without leaving greenfield exploration behind”, said Corrales, adding that the company is looking for opportunities in the mentioned countries, even in those that could be considered of higher risk such as Argentina or Ecuador. This other than because of the tendency to reduce greenfield exploration in Peru, due to the political situation in which, despite the changes in regulations, the times to grant authorizations has not yet improved, he says.
In the country, the main prospecting area for Southern is still the south (Arequipa-Moquegua and Tacna), where in 2017 it conducted 20,000 m of drillings and also activity in La Libertad and the country’s central area.
“We have so many projects that I believe that in one more decade, we will have the order of priorities for the projects we will develop”, he said.
The company’s more advanced exploration project is Los Chancas copper (Apurimac) in the feasibility stage and about to present its EIA. The investment estimates point to over $1.5 billion and production estimates point to around 100,000 t/y of copper.
The project that is in the advanced development stage, almost ready for construction, is Tia Maria, located in Arequipa, with yearly production projections of 120,000 t of copper and an estimated investment of around $1.5 billion. In the year 2013, violent social protests forced the project to stop its steps forward because people feared that their crops could end up waterless and polluted.
“Tia Maria is a political decision, Southern has done everything that must be done and we continue to work on social issues. Regarding the overlapping concessions, the trial has been won already, but the owner of the 100 ha concessions has placed an habeas corpus and the Ministry [of Energy and Mines] did not give us the authorization. We moved the design of the plant for it to no longer be in that concession. The license is in the hands of the State. We have everything approved, we only need to start”, said Corrales.
Southern operates the Toquepala (Tacna) and Cuajone (Moquegua) mines and the refinery of Ilo (Moquegua) in Peru. In Mexico, it operates the deposits La Caridad and Buenavista.
Tia Maria map courtesy of Infomine.