Strengths

The Los Pelambres copper deposit is notable because of its size. Its known reserves are large enough to support more than 25 years of mining but its geological resources are significantly greater, offering significant potential for expansion. In addition to its size, the deposit has strong commercial advantages. For instance, natural erosion has reduced the overburden covering the ore body, which now lies near the surface and results in a low stripping ratio (waste:ore) of approximately 1:1 over the life of the current mine plan, which helps contain mining costs. Los Pelambres was built under an EPCM (Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management) contract in conjunction with Bechtel International. State-of- the- art technology was incorporated into Los Pelambres at all stages and ensures an efficient and low cost operation.

An Environmental Impact Study was approved in April 2004. This enables Los Pelambres to mine additional reserves (reaching 2.0 billion tonnes over the life of the mine) and allows for the expansion of its concentrator up to 175,000 tonnes per day of ore throughput, which is now in progress.

The nature of the orebody combined with the advanced technological design of the mine and significant by-product credits places Los Pelambres among the lowest cost quartile of producers in the industry.