Codelco and Freeport to Delay Mine Expansion in Chile Amid Falling Prices and Financial Turmoil

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--State-owned copper miner Codelco (Santiago, Chile) and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Incorporated (NYSE:FCX) (Phoenix, Arizona) have delayed the development of the El Abra copper mine expansion project as a result of falling copper prices and the international financial turmoil.

The companies, which operate the mine through Compania Contractual Minera el Abra (Santiago) approved the $450 million expansion project in July 2008 in order to increase the life of the current aging mine. The Sulfolix Project, as the companies call it, is designed to change the operation from oxide to sulfide leaching and expand the solvent extraction and electro-winning plant to process 115 tons per day of ore and produce 163,000 tons per year of copper cathodes. The project will take advantage of existing infrastructure, using the El Abra crusher, transport belts and SX-EW plant, Construction is now expected to kick off by the end of 2009 with project completion set for 2011. Fluor Chile S.A., a subsidiary of Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas), was awarded an engineering contract for this project.

El Abra is 49% owned by Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, and 51% owned by Freeport-McMoRan, the world's largest publicly traded copper miner.

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