Copper miner Antofagasta is evaluating two options for expansion of its Centinela copper operations in Chile, and will approve one by the end of the year, the company's chief executive officer told Metal Bulletin.
Expansion is part of a plan to use the company's capital for growth in a disciplined manner and to ensure that Antofagasta maximizes the returns on its investment, Iv??n Arriagada said during an interview at the annual Cesco industry week in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday April 10."We're making the two options compete in terms of attractiveness. It'll be one or the other. By the end of the year, we'll decide which one we'll undertake," he added.The company has for some time been considering adding a second concentrator at Centinela. The unit is located in Chile's Antofagasta region and was created from the merger of the Esperanza and El Tesoro mines. Feasibility studies for the project are scheduled to finish in 2018, and environmental permits have already been secured.But now the company is considering a slightly smaller initial expansion which would involve increasing the capacity of the existing concentrator.The main reason...