Freeport aims to complete El Abra expansion study in 2019

Freeport McMoran aims to complete a feasibility study for a concentrator plant at the El Abra open pit copper mine in northern Chile next year.

The concentrator plant would have treatment capacity of 240,000t/d, said business development VP Francisco Costabal during a seminar at the Expomin mining fair in Santiago. The plan is similar to the expansion carried out by Freeport at its Cerro Verde mine in southern Peru.

"El Abra has been exploited rationally and we are entering the phase of primary sulfides, so we are building a concentrator plant," Costabal said.

El Abra is a 51:49 JV between US-based Freeport McMoRan and Chilean state copper company Codelco. The mine started operating in 1996 and produces about 140,000t/y copper.

Costabal said the Arizona-based company went through difficult times due to the acquisition of gas and oil projects, which led to a high level of debt. "But after two years, in 2017 we lowered the debt by more than 40% and in the first quarter of 2018 we lowered it by an additional US$1bn. In consequence, the company is returning to normal."