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Thursday, 22nd May 2008 (2599 views)

A "leading global producer" of copper has announced plans to expand into gold exploration and mining in the world's fifth-largest gold producer, Peru, according to reports.

Southern Copper says it is making the move because of gold's bullish performance on worldwide stock markets, news agency Reuters states.

The company already operates in Peru and Mexico and it hopes to start gold production at the Tantahuatay project by mid-2010, the site adds.

Speaking at a gold mine conference in the South American state, Southern Copper chief executive Oscar Gonzalez told the service: "The [Tantahuatay] feasibility study should probably be finished in the third or fourth quarter of this year, with construction beginning in 2009. It would then take a year and a half to start producing."

He added that the project, which is located in the northern portion of Peru's Cajamarca region, hosts resources of around one million ounces of gold and has an estimated mining life of ten years.

The company is also set to invest $2 billion (£1 billion) in the development of the Tia Maria and Los Chancas mines in the south of Peru, Mr Gonzalez commented.

Peru is located in the north-west of South America. The country shares its borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Chile.

 

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