Southern Copper plans to move into gold mining and exploration in Peru, Chief Executive Oscar Gonzalez has announced.
The company, which is controlled by Grupo Mexico and operates in Peru and Mexico, hopes to start production at the Tantahuatay copper-gold project in in mid-2010.
Speaking to Reuters, Gonzalez says the company is currently working on a pre-feasibility and environmental impact study on the project.
"The feasibility study should probably be finished in the third- or fourth-quarter of this year, with construction beginning in 2009. It would then take a year-and-a-half to start producing."
The Tantahuatay project is operated by Buenaventura, one of the country’s biggest producers of precious metals.
Southern Copper is also investing about US$2bn to develop the Tia Maria and Los Chancas in southern Peru.
By staff writer
