Quebrada Blanca project on schedule and budget

Earlier this year, the sights and sounds of mine building in Chile were presented vicariously to shareholders attending the annual meetings of associated Toronto-listed companies Teck, Cominco and Cominco Resources International.

A videotape was shown, outlining progress at the Quebrada Blanca (QB) copper project in the Andean Altiplano, 150 km north of the Chuquicamata mine in northern Chile. Capital costs are budgeted at US$328 million, excluding interest and working capital.

Norman Keevil, a director of all three companies, told shareholders that construction was proceeding “on schedule and on budget” at the new solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) copper project.

“QB will be a low-cost producer, with production costs in the vicinity of US40 cents per lb.,” Keevil said. “And at 75,000 tonnes of cathode copper per year, (it) will be the largest, pure SX-EW mine in the world.”