Cerro Colorado (Chile)

Total mining reserves reached 190.7 M tonnes, with an average grade of 0.76% Cu (Total) and 0.44% Cu (soluble). Since the beginning of operations, the company planned to carry out mine operations in 11 phases; to this date, phases 5, 6, 7 and 8 were in operations.

BNamericas reports Chile's Cerro Colorado copper mine, owned by Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton estimates copper production in 2005 will fall at least 19.5% to 90,000-95,000t due to an earthquake in June, the company said in a statement.

BNamericas.com writes Chile's Cerro Colorado copper mine, owned by Anglo-Australian natural resources giant BHP Billiton, is still ramping up copper production following earthquake damage on June 13, according to a top company executive. "Cerro Colorado is at 100% of capacity of daily mineral tonnage but not yet of copper production because leaching takes time," said Diego Hernández, BHP Billiton Base Metals president. BHP Billiton will know in a couple of weeks how much production Cerro Colorado lost as a result of the earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale in northern Chile's Region I, Hernández said.