The Executive Director of ProInversión, René Cornejo, has informed that Rio Tinto, Xstrata Canadá, Southern Copper, Teck Cominco, CVRD and Barrick have pre-qualified on the bidding for La Granja copper project in northern Peru. He added that the date scheduled for opening the envelopes of the short-listed investors is December 16. La Granja is located in Querocoto district, Chota province, Cajamarca.
The winning company must have a bankable feasibility study outlining an investment of not less than $700 million investment and the propopsed operation must have a treatment capacity over 35,000 t/d. ProInversión reports “La Granja is a deposit of copper with contents of gold and silver as main minerals. The mining concession covers 3.900 ha [and] has been continuously explored and studied by Minero Perú between 1970-1990; Cambior between 1994/1999 and recently by BHP Billiton between 2000/2001.”
The government says that more than 100,000 m of diamond drilling have been completed and that proven reserves are 1,200 Mt at 0.65% Cu. Past concerns have been the low grade.
