Ecuador expects US$3bn construction of 2 mines to kick off next year

Ecuador expects pre-construction works to begin at the Cascabel and Curipamba mining projects by the end of the year, and construction to kick off in 2024, energy and mines minister Fernando Santos told BNamericas.

“There's very encouraging news. We're negotiating the move to the production stage of both Cascabel and Curipamba, which will begin construction of their mines next year," Santos said.

The Cascabel copper-gold project is located in the northern province of Imbabura. It belongs to Australia's SolGold and will require an investment of US$2.75bn.

According to the pre-feasibility study, the Alpala deposit, the most important in the concession, contains 9.9Mt of copper, 21.7Moz of gold and 92.2Moz of silver in measured and indicated resources.

Cascabel will be an underground operation that SolGold expects to become one of the 20 largest copper and gold mines in South America.

The Curipamba gold and copper project, located in the central-west province of Bolívar, is owned by Canada's Adventus Mining and Salazar Resources. It will demand an investment of around US$250mn.

Curipamba is projected to produce an average of 21,390t/y of copper equivalent over its mine life.

Adventus and Salazar signed the investment contract for the project with the Ecuadoran government in December.

Santos said Ecuador expects a higher production this year at the only two large-scale mines in the country: the Mirador copper mine and the Fruta del Norte gold mine. He did not provide any figures for the expected increase.

The government of President Guillermo Lasso will give its full support to the mining industry and combat illegal mining operations through joint efforts by the military, police and judicial authorities, said Santos. 

The military and police will not have a permanent presence at mines, but there will be mobile patrols protecting mining camps where there is a high risk of violent acts from illegal miners, indigenous groups and anti-mining activists, he said.