Anglo American Started Commercial Production at Quellaveco

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Anglo American plc announced the start of commercial copper shipments from its Quellaveco open pit copper mine located in the Moquegua region in the south of Peru. It had started construction works on the mine jointly held between Anglo American and Mitsubishi Corporation in 2018.

This follows successful testing of operations and receipt of final regulatory clearance.The company expects the mine to produce an average of nearly 300,000 tonnes per year of copper equivalent volume over the initial ten years of operation. It has an estimated 1.7 billion tonnes of ore reserves.

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According to company press release, Quellaveco will be fully ramped up over the next 9-12 months. Also, it has revised its production for the current year from previous guidance of 100,000-150,000 to 80,000-100,000 tonnes of copper. Meantime, the output guidance for 2023 and 2024 has been kept unchanged at 320,000-370,000 tonnes of copper each. The C1 unit cost too has been revised from earlier c.135c/lb to c.150c/lb.

Ruben Fernandes, CEO of Anglo American’s Base Metals business highlighted that Quellaveco is a low emission mine that draws its electricity supply entirely from renewables.  Oreover, it is one of South America’s most technologically advanced mines, he added.