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REGIONAL NEWS - LATIN AMERICA Minera Panama Selects Equipment Vendors and Plant EPC Contractor Inmet Mining announced its 80%-owned subsidiary, Minera Panama, has selected the mine mobile equipment vendors and the detailed engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the processing plant for the Cobre Panama open-pit copper project in the Donoso district of Panama. Equipment supply contracts have been awarded to P&H; Mining Equipment for rope shovels; Komatsu Holding South America for hydraulic shovels/excavators and trucks; IIASA Panama S.A. (Caterpillar) for ancillary and support equipment; and Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions for rotary drills. The contracts cover 84 pieces of equipment that will be progressively delivered to site starting in 2013 in time to begin pre-stripping operations in the fourth quarter of 2014 and ahead of commissioning of the mineral processing plant and first shipment of concentrate in the first quarter of 2016. The total value of the equipment contracts is $349 million. The contracts include both supply of the equipment and maintenance and service of the equipment for the first five years of operation. For the concentrator, Joint Venture Panama Inc. (JVP), a joint venture led by the mining and metallurgy division of SNC- Lavalin, with partners GyM S.A. (a member of Grana y Montero Group) and Techint International Construction Corp., has been engaged to proceed with detailed engineering, procurement and construction. This work will be performed in two phases. Under the first phase, JVP will perform detailed engineering and procurement services. Upon satisfactory advancement of detailed engineering, JVP will proceed with construction management for the facility starting in the fourth quarter of 2013. Minera Panama has already ordered SAG and ball mills and motors for the concentrator, which are scheduled for delivery starting in the fourth quarter of 2013. The Cobre Panama plant will treat a nominal throughput of 160,000 mt/d, using two grinding lines, each having capacity of 80,000 mt/d. Current planning calls for the ore feed rate to increase to 240,000 mt/d after year nine of operations to maintain concentrate production levels despite a falling head grade. The production process will include bulk rougher flotation and cleaners, a molybdenum circuit, a copper concentrate thickener, copper concentrate pumping to a filtration plant and concentrate storage at the port facility, and an assay laboratory and other infrastructure. The Cobre Panama copper project mobile fleet will include Komatsu 930E-4 haulers similar to the model shown above, P&H; 4100XPC-AC mining shovels and Komatsu PC8000-6 hydraulic excavators, Atlas PV271D rotary drills and Cat 16M and 24M graders as well as various items of Cat-brand support equipment. 20 E&MJ; • DECEMBER 2012 The Cobre Panama plant is designed to process ore at a nominal head grade of 0.5% copper and 0.01% molybdenum, with a design maximum head grade of 0.9% copper and 0.015% molybdenum. Pascua-Lama Schedule Unaffected by Stoppage Barrick reported on November 11 that it voluntarily halted pre-stripping activities on October 27 in the open-pit area of its cross-border Chile/Argentina Pascua-Lama gold-silver project after observing increased dust in the area. The dust had been exacerbated by stronger than normal winds, and Barrick halted pre-stripping to allow implementation of additional dust mitigation and control measures. Regulatory authorities in Chile subsequently issued an order to halt pre-stripping until dust-related health and safety concerns were addressed. This order only affected activities related to pre-stripping in Chile. Major construction activities on the Chilean side of the project, including work on the ore tunnel, the crusher and the camp were continuing uninterrupted. Construction activities in Argentina were not impacted. Barrick stated that pre-stripping is not a critical path item in the Pascua-Lama construction schedule, and the company does not anticipate that the temporary halt will impact the overall project schedule or cost estimates. In its report of third-quarter results, Barrick reported it hired Fluor to assume overall project management at PascuaLama. In July, Barrick announced preliminary results of a review indicating an increase in capital costs at Pascua-Lama to $7.5–$8 billion and a delay in first production to mid-2014. Since then, Barrick has been working with Fluor on a more comprehensive "top-to-bottom" review, which will be complete for inclusion in the company's 2012 year-end results release. Work to date suggests that capital costs will be closer to $8–$8.5 billion, with first production in the second half of 2014. As of November 1, approximately $3.7 billion had been spent for Pascua-Lama development. www.e-mj.com