Minera Panama S.A. has revised the original 2008 purchase of Metso grinding mills for the Cobre Panama project and has confirmed the resizing of mills. The original grinding mill supply has been revised to now be two 40-ft SAG mills and four 26-ft ball mills. This change is the result of more detailed throughput modeling to achieve a throughput of 150,000 dry metric tons per day (dmtpd). Delivery will be completed by the end of 2013.
The Cobre Panama project is located approximately 100 km west of the Panama Canal. It is estimated start-up will commence by the end of 2015. Once the new Cobre Panama mine is in full operation, the concentrator will be capable of processing ore at a rate of 150,000 dmtpd over the first 10-years of operation. According to figures included in the FEED Report (March 2010) the average annual metal production rate over the first 16 years has been estimated at 289,000 tons of copper, 108,000 oz of gold, 1.544 million oz of silver and 3,600 tons of molybdenum. Minera Panama S.A. is owned by Inmet Mining Corp.
The original order was included in Metso’s order backlog in Q2/2008 and now the upgraded value of EUR 54 million is included in order backlog in Q2/2011.
