Peru’s Antamina to become 4th biggest global copper player
Peruvian miner Antamina expects to become the world’s fourth largest copper producer this year. In a presentation to the mining engineers institute, CEO Víctor Gobitz said copper production will grow 11.8% in 2021 to 443,000t, compared to Chile’s Escondida at 1.13Mt, PT Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia at 620,300t, and Chile’s Collahuasi at 600,000t.
Antamina is a large, low-cost copper and zinc mine. It is operated independently by Compañía Minera Antamina S.A. Antamina produces copper and zinc, and by-product credits of molybdenum and silver. Copper and zinc concentrates are transported 300 kilometres by pipeline to the port of Huarney. Molybdenum and lead/bismuth concentrates are transported by truck. It is one of the ten largest mines in the world in terms of production volume.
Minem figures
Energy and mines ministry (Minem) figures show that Antamina produced 302,958t in January-August, a year-on-year increase of 25.6%. The Antamina deposit in Áncash region ranked third globally in zinc output last year at 427,800t, behind Ghazaouet in Algeria at 869,100t and Red Dog in Alaska at 490,700t, according to Gobitz. Likewise, silver production reached 16.2Moz, compared to KGHM Polska’s 39.2Moz, Mexican mine Peñasquito’s 30.9Moz, and Dukat in Russia at 18.2Moz.
Antamina is Peru’s leading copper, zinc and silver producer. In 2020, 67% of revenues came from copper, 23% from zinc and 8% from silver, with molybdenum and lead making up the rest. The deposit has reserves for eight years and mineral resources for 30 years.
Antamina has been operating as an open pit mine for 20 years but production is likely to move underground, Ricardo Cáceres, CEO of Global Investment & Consulting, told BNamericas. The company recently hired Marco Jaúregui, the former underground operations chief of Peruvian gold producer Minera Yanacocha.
