Feasibility Studies Begin for Inca de Oro Mining Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Latin America (Cordoba, Argentina)--Inca de Oro S.A. (Santiago, Chile), a joint venture between PanAust Limited (ASX:PNA) (Brisbane, Australia) and Codelco (Santiago, Chile), began a feasibility study for a project in Diego de Almagro, in the Atacama region, that entails the construction of an open-pit mine and a solvent extraction/electro-winning plant.

PanAust Limited purchased 66% of the project in March 2011 for $45.3 million, leaving Codelco with the remaining 34%.

Codelco's pre-feasibility study estimated a 10-year mine life and an annual production of approximately 50,000 tonnes per year of copper and 40,000 ounces of gold in concentrate. The investment will be approximately $400 millon.

Construction is expected to last 18 months, starting in early 2012, with the project's completion set for the third quarter of 2013.

PanAust Limited has three active projects in Southeast Asia, with a total investment of $300 million; two of them are in Laos--the expansion of operational copper and gold mine Phu Kham, and the construction of gold and silver mine Ban Houayxai--and the third, the construction of a copper mine, is in Puthep, in northeast Thailand

Codelco is the largest Copper producer in the world, comprised of seven divisions across the country, and owns assets of more than $20.28 billion.

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