Vancouver – The Chilean unit of SNC-Lavalin has been awarded an engineering and procurement contract for the start-up and expansion of the Mirador copper mine project being advanced to production by Corriente Resources (CTQ-T) in Ecuador.
Corriente plans to build an initial 25,000-tonne-per-day “starter” mine that could be expanded to 50,000 tonnes per day in year five of the proposed project. The starter operation is projected to produce about 131 million lbs. copper, 32,000 oz. gold, and 398,000 oz. silver annually during each of the first five years.
Captial costs for the project are estimated at US$195 million. The initial mine plan is based on a contract-mining company providing ore to a conventional concentrator at the daily rate of 25,000 tonnes.
The Mirador deposit hosts a measured and indicated resource of 346.9 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.62% copper, 0.2 gram gold and 1.6 grams silver per tonne, based on a cutoff grade of 0.37% copper. About 491 million tonnes of waste rock will be removed over the mine life, resulting in an average strip ratio of 1.4:1 waste-to-ore.
The initial starter pit will have a lower strip ratio, estimated at 0.53:1 waste-to-ore, and 101.5 million tonnes of ore at 0.67% copper, 0.21 gram gold and 1.8 grams silver.
Engineering and pre-construction are reported to be on schedule, with approval of the company’s Environmental Impact Assessment expected in the second quarter of this year.
Mirador is one of several copper and copper-gold porphyry deposits held by the company in the Corriente copper belt district, with the three most advanced of these being Mirador, Panantza and San Carlos. A resource delineation program is under way at a fourth deposit called Mirador Norte, situated about 3 km from the Mirador mine project.
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