Antofagasta:Los Pelambres At Full Capacity;Confirms FY Target

9th Jun 2010 12:28

LONDON (Dow Jones)--London-listed Chilean miner Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) Wednesday said the brownfield plant expansion at its Los Pelambres copper mine was recently completed and is now running at full capacity, despite slight delays due to the Chilean earthquake. Antofagasta Chairman Jean-Paul Luksic also reconfirmed that the FTSE-100 miner plans to produce 543,000 tons of copper, compared with 440,000 tons in 2009, due to additional production from Los Pelambres. Luksic was speaking at the company's annual general meeting in London. The brownfield expansion at Los Pelambres has increased plant output by 25% to 175,000 tons a day and will likely increase payable copper production by around 90,000 tonnes a year, he said. "This was despite slight delays resulting from the effects of the earthquake, which caused some damage to the dedicated electricity substation, as well as impacting the families of some of the workforce, many of whom consequently had to return home," Luksic said. Molybdenum production at Los Pelambres is also expected to rise to 9,500 tons in 2010, up from 7,800 tons in 2009 due to the plant expansion. Luksic confirmed that the Esperanza project is making "good progress" with about 78% of the construction complete as of the end of May. The earthquake caused some disruption to construction but the company is still on track to start production during the fourth quarter of 2010. At 1108 GMT, Antofagasta's shares were down 0.5 pence, or 0.1%, at 838 pence, while the FTSE-100 index was up 0.2%. -By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9328; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 09, 2010 07:28 ET (11:28 GMT)