Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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REGIONAL NEWS - LATIN AMERICA Codelco's Chairman Steps Down Unexpectedly The Cobre Panama project is located in the Donoso district of Panama and is owned 80% by Minera Panama, S.A., an 80%-owned subsidiary of Inmet, and 20% by Korea Panama Mining Corp., a consor- tium of LS-Nikko Copper Inc. and Korea Resources Corp. Thomas Keller, vice president of administration and finances, and Diego Hernandez, president of Codelco, are shown in this file photo presenting the company's financial results in 2010. (Photo courtesy of Codelco) Chile's Corporacion del Cobre Nacional (Codelco) announced that its highly respected Chairman, Diego Hernandez, tendered his resignation effective June 1. He cited personal reasons as the reason for his decision. Some analysts are now spec- ulating on Codelco's ability to achieve its ambitious copper growth initiatives. Codelco has appointed Thomas Keller Lippold, current vice president of admin- istration and finance, as the new CEO. Thomas Keller, 55, is a commercial engineer from Adolfo Ibañez University (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez) and has an MBA from Chicago University. He partici- pated actively in the development and operation of the Collahuasi project, initial- ly as vice president of finance and then as CEO for five years. Keller joined Codelco in mid-2010 and has been working on the strategic reformulation of the company headed by Hernández. Among his many achievements, the biggest was the structuring of financing operations to acquire the option of Codelco in Anglo American Sur. Inmet Starting Construction at Cobre Panama Inmet Mining announced in early May 2012 that basic engineering for the Cobre Panama project in Panama is complete. 24 E&MJ; • JUNE 2012 Once Cobre Panama's permits are approved, mining and ore processing could begin as early as 2015. www.e-mj.com Later in the month, the company reported the closing of an offering of $1.5-billion aggregate principal amount of 8.75% sen- ior unsecured notes maturing in 2020, the net proceeds of which will be used to fund development of the project. With this clos- ing, Inmet's board granted its approval to start construction of Cobre Panama. Cobre Panama is planned as a conven- tional truck-and-shovel, open-pit mine, with a concentrator that employs crushing, grinding and flotation to produce copper- gold and molybdenum concentrates. Ore throughput is planned to start at 160,000 mt/d, with later expansion to 240,000 mt/d. Mine life is projected at more than 31 years, based on reserves only and not including the project's significant meas- ured, indicated, and inferred resources. The strip ratio will average 0.58:1, waste to ore. A series of analyses was conducted to determine economic pit limits and the min- ing sequence for three mineral deposits in the Cobre Panama concession area: Botija, Colina and Valle Grande. The concentrator site will be centrally located within 2 km of all three deposits, as well as the stockpile. A fourth, smaller, deposit, Medio, is rough- ly 500 m northeast of the Colina pit, and a small Medio pit is part of the mine produc- tion schedule in years 11 to 14.