Minister: Pillones construction to start Oct.

Construction of the US$14.5mn multi-purpose Pillones dam in Peru's Arequipa department will begin in October, mines and energy minister Hans Flury said in a statement Thursday. The dam, which is 25 meters high and will hold 80 million cubic meters of water, will increase state power generator Egasa's installed capacity by at least 25MW and annual generation by 150,000MWh, he said. The project will also allow local copper mining company Cerro Verde to increase production by at least 250,000 tonnes/year within a few years, he added. Egasa has already awarded the contract to build the dam to the Colca consortium, made up of companies Jaccsa, C y M Vizcarra, Constructora Upaca and Obras de Ingenieria. Construction should take 15 months and cost around US$15mn, the minister said.