LATIN-AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL BRIEFS

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas).

Metals & Minerals

Argentina’s Don Otto Mine to Reactivate Uranium Production

Argentina's atomic energy commission, CNEA, and authorities from the Salta Province have signed an agreement to reactivate the Don Otto uranium mine, plant officials said. The project will require $11 million to produce, from October 2008, 30 tons per year of uranium and to generate 400 direct and indirect jobs, Argentina's mining minister announced. The amount produced will be assigned to fuelling the Embalse and Atucha I nuclear plants and proximately Atucha II, which is under construction.

Chile and Argentina’s Pascua Lama Project to Begin in 2008

Canada’s Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX ) (Toronto, Canada) plans to begin later 2007 or early 2008 with the construction of the $1.5 billion Pascua-Lama gold mine project, to be located on the Chile-Argentina border. After an extensive review including public consultation, Chilean authorities had approved the project’s environmental-impact study February 2006. The Pascua-Lama project is the first bi-national mining project in the world. The deposit is on the border between Chile and Argentina.

Maragusa to Build Steel Plant in Brazil

Maraba Gusa Siderurgica LTDA, a Brazilian pig iron producer, plans to build a 500,000 tons per year steel plant in northern Pará state. The construction is expected to begin in early 2008 and may be completed by the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010. Viability studies have already been completed. Maragusa has another operating pig iron plant in Pará's Marabá city that has been producing since July.

Oil & Gas

Petrobras Starts Dialog with Mozambique

Petrobras' International Area Director Nestor Cerveró met with President Armando Emílio Guebuza at the end of August in Mozambique. Petrobras’ representatives asserted the company’s eagerness to work jointly with Mozambican companies in the oil and gas and biofuels areas.

Power

Chile’s AES Gener Submits Environmental Studies for 132 MW Thermal Plant

AES subsidiary in Chile, AES Gener (Santiago de Chile, Chile), has submitted environmental studies to the regional environmental regulator, Conama, for the construction of the Santa Lidia thermal plant. Santa Lidia will be built in the Charrúa Municipality in Chile’s VIII Region and will produce 360 megawatts (MW).

The plant would cost $175 million and would be built in three phases, with the ‘first phase using a 120 MW open cycle diesel turbine. Two additional 120 MW units would be added, and the plant would eventually be converted to run on natural gas.

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