First Quantum delays Cobre Panama start

First Quantum Minerals’ Cobre Panama project should produce 20 per cent more copper than previously planned, but production will start later than expected and development costs will be higher, the company said.

Vancouver-based First Quantum, which bought the huge copper project in Panama through its$4.8-billion takeover of rival Inmet Mining last year, said that after reviewing the project it expected output at 320,000 tonnes a year, 20 per cent more than Inmet had planned.

It also unveiled a higher capital cost estimate for the project at $6.4 billion, up $200,000 from the Inmet estimate and said production would start in late 2017, almost two years later than Inmet had expected.

Source: The Globe and Mail