Baja Mining Begins Construction of $1 Billion Boleo Polymetallic Mine and Mill

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--After years of failed attempts to revive a 130-year-old copper mine site in Baja California Sur, Mexico, Minera Y Metalurgica del Boleo SA de CV (Santa Rosalia, Mexico), a joint venture between Baja Mining Corporation (TSX:BAJ) (Vancouver, British Columbia) (70%) and Korea Resources Corporation (Seoul, South Korea) (30%) has finally begun site preparation on the $1 billion Boleo polymetallic mine and processing plant. Industrial Info has been tracking the progression of the Boleo polymetallic mine and mill project since June 1998, when the project was under the development of International Curator Resources Limited. The project is moving forward in spite of skyrocketing costs of equipment and service project development.

Baja Mining indicates that mining equipment is arriving, and engineers are completing detailed engineering. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2009 and should be completed by the beginning of 2010. The company will remove 3.4 million tons a year of ore from the underground and open pit mines to extract 65,000 tons of refined copper, 2,300 tons of cobalt, 40,000 tons of zinc sulfate and 100,000 tons of manganese. The Boleo site will be able to produce its own electricity by building a cogeneration facility utilizing waste heat from a sulfuric acid plant. The company will produce its own water from three desalination plants.

MexTICa S de RL de CV (Tlaxcala, Mexico), a subsidiary of The Industrial Company (TIC) (Steamboat Springs, Colorado), is the engineering and construction company. AMEC plc (LON:AMEC) (London) is overseeing the entire project and construction of the workers' camp, both mines and the desalination plants. With a capacity of 132,100 gallons a day, the first desalination plant will provide potable water for up to 2,500 construction workers. The other two plants, producing 634,000 gallons a day, will be built after the sulfuric acid plant is operational.

FLSmidth Incorporated (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) has been awarded the design-build contract for the mill where the ores will be crushed, leached, and separated by counter-current decantation. The design-build contract for the extraction plant, where the copper, zinc, cobalt and manganese is produced, has been awarded to Bateman Litwin NV (Yokneam, Jerusalem).

Waste heat from a 2,400-ton-per-day sulfuric acid plant will be utilized to assist the heat recovery steam generator and the 46-megawatt cogeneration plant to supply the majority of the site's steam and power. The design-build contractor for the acid plant and cogeneration plant is Fenco Incorporated (Toronto, Ontario), a division of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group Incorporated (TSX:SNC).

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