Las Bambas welcomed Ollanta Humala, the President of the Republic of Peru, on Tuesday, 16 February. The President toured the operation and reviewed commissioning activities alongside Pedro Cateriano, Peru’s Prime Minister, Rosa María Ortiz Ríos, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Andrew Michelmore, CEO of MMG Limited, Jerry Jiao, Chairman of MMG Limited, Wenbo He, Chairman of China Minmetals, and high officers from Las Bambas.
During the President’s visit, Las Bambas officers thanked the Peruvian Government for the support expressed for the development of this megaproject, which will position Peru as one of the top copper producers in the world and will contribute to social investment and local employment in the region as it ramps up to full production.
During construction, Las Bambas employed more than 18,000 employees, many of them local to the Apurimac region, and contributed more than US$250 million to fund improvements in education, health, production development, capacity building, road networks and mobile communication services.
Las Bambas, owned by the joint venture led by MMG, produced its first copper in concentrate in late December 2015 as part of commissioning activities. The first shipment of approximately 10,000 tonnes of copper departed from the Port of Matarani on 15 January 2016.
When in full production Las Bambas will have an annual nameplate throughput capacity of 51.1 million tonnes and is expected to produce between 250,000 and 300,0001 tonnes of copper in concentrate in 2016.
“This achievement is a testament to the strength of Las Bambas as a company that brings together the efforts of its investors, employees, the community and, above all, the Peruvian Government, and it would not have been possible without the support of our major shareholder, China Minmetals, and our joint venture partners, Guoxin and CITIC”, said Andrew Michelmore.
1 Production volumes include expected pre and post-commercial production volumes at Las Bambas. The exact split will be determined prior to Las Bambas declaring commencement of commercial operations.