Las Bambas is a large, long-life copper development project at an advanced stage of construction, located in Cotabambas, Apurimac region of Peru.
Las Bambas has significant Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum and once in production is estimated to have a mine life in excess of 20 years.
In its first full year of operation it is expected to be one of the top three copper producing mines in the world and is currently one of the largest copper projects in construction on a copper resource basis.
Las Bambas is a joint venture project between the operator MMG (62.5%), a wholly owned subsidiary of Guoxin International Investment Co. Ltd (22.5%) and CITIC Metal Co. Ltd (15.0%).
Progress at Las Bambas is continuing to plan, with overall mechanical construction now largely complete.
The focus of the project is now on pre-commissioning, commissioning and the close-out of remaining construction activity. MMG expects first production of concentrate in the first quarter of 2016.
Las Bambas holds considerable exploration upside potential with only 10% of the total land holding explored so far. MMG has initiated an extensive drilling program at to further define the reserves and resources both within and outside the existing planned pit outlines.
Indicative results from this drilling program have started to validate MMG’s view that there is significant upside to the existing resource base.