Reserve upgrade adds a year to Alumbrera mine

Vancouver — Reserve upgrades at the Alumbrera copper-gold mine in northwestern Argentina have added one year to the life of the major open-pit operation, owned by Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N), Northern Orion Resources (NNO-T, NTO-X) and Xstrata (XSRAF-O, XTA-L). The mine will now stay in operation until at least mid-2016.

Delineation drilling in the Alumbrera pit has added about 40 million tonnes of ore reserves, mostly identified in the southern end of the pit, and has led to a re-optimization of the mining plan. Proven and probable reserves now stand at 400 million tonnes grading 0.45% copper and 0.49 gram gold per tonne.

Built at a capital cost of about US$1.3 billion, Alumbrera began production in 1997. Forecast metal output for 2006 is 400 million lbs. (181,400 tonnes) copper and 600,000 oz. gold.

The mine is owned 50% by Xstrata (also operator), 37.5% by Goldcorp and 12.5% by Northern Orion.