The project to join the world’s major mining league was handpicked by Copec group, a milestone that took place two years ago, after an agreement signed with Peruvian group Breca to acquire 40% of Marcopper, the company that owns the Mina Justa project. This is a joint investment of more than US$ 1.6 billion, which the local group accessed through its affiliate, mining company Alxar.

The latter’s CEO, Erwin Kaufmann, explains that the balance they make about this company is more than positive, ‘not only it met expectations, but it exceeded them. It has been a very good job, very complementary,’ he said. The Chilean firm’s work on the project located in southern Peru has been quite active, collaborating with local professionals in the development of the works and monitoring the progress of the initiative. Kaufmann added that to date works have been carried out in accordance with the schedule established from the beginning, and are now 75% complete. Furthermore, production start-up has already been scheduled for October this year. In the coming months, the date for the inauguration of the project is expected to be set, which could be attended by the main authorities of the Andean country.

‘We had been searching for a long time, and the reward for the time we took to find an asset of this quality and with a partner of this quality, is minimizing risks. It has been less difficult for us than one might suppose, due to the fact that we took the time to find the right partner, with the right project,’ Kaufmann said. The deposit has characteristics that are scarce in the region in terms of mining, since it has competitive advantages such as its proximity to the sea, which facilitates access to ports and the desalinated water that will be used when it starts operating. ‘That does not mean that in the future we will have other projects that are much more challenging, because there are not many initiatives like this left’, the executive said.

Potential expansion

Asked about the entry or acquisition of new projects, Kaufmann explains that while they are looking for opportunities in Chile and Peru, they are still working with caution and with a focus on Mina Justa. ‘We are always on the lookout for opportunities, but today our main focus is on successfully completing the development of Mina Justa, it is a large investment, today we have 5,500 people working there.

We aim to make this great investment profitable, but we are always looking for opportunities, because sometimes they come up and they truly are opportunities. We are also with our partner (the Breca group) evaluating if there would eventually be something interesting.’ In the short term, however, the company is working with an exploration plan of ‘several million dollars’ on the land where the deposit is located, in a mining property of more than 60,000 hectares, with only 3,000 currently in use.

‘There is enormous growth potential for this same project and we are already doing tests. So it should be no surprise that in the future we may extend the useful life of the mine and keep the production volumes at what we are going to have for the first six years, which are 150 thousand tons of fine copper for each year.’ Regarding the political situation that Peru is going through, the executive explains that it has had no effect on the project and they take it as the natural complexities of each country, especially in circumstances where the mining industry is expected to drive the economic development of that nation during 2020.

Regarding operations in Chile, where Copec currently has no presence in large-scale copper mining (above 50,000 tons per year), he said that entry into this category can be done independently, or with a strategic partner, bearing in mind that Chile is a key market for the company. As for the potential effects of Chile’s social crisis, Kaufmann rules out any impact on Alxar’s interest in growing in the market. ‘Obviously, like all Chileans, we’re paying attention to what’s happening in our country, but we are super confident that after this we will see a better country, and we, like all businessmen, are still hopeful and optimistic about what will happen in Chile. Therefore, our focus has not changed regarding the fact that Chile is a country that fulfills the strategic in a nutshell for Alxar’s mining development,’ he added.