Peru’s Cerro Verde presents US$2.1bn plan to extend operations until 2053

Peru’s largest copper producer Cerro Verde is preparing to invest US$2.1bn in production improvements and to extend the useful life of the mine in Arequipa region until 2053. 

The current useful life runs until 2045.

According to a document sent to environmental certifier Senace –the second modification to the environmental impact study of Cerro Verde (II MEIA) – the company proposes combining the three pits currently in operation (Cerro Verde, Santa Rosa and Cerro Negro), the expansion of three waste dumps (west, northeast and Cerro Negro), increasing the combined capacity of the concentration plants to 420,000t/d, raising the height of the tailings dam wall by 57m, expanding leaching areas and modifications to transmission lines, among other things.

The company expects to implement the changes over the next 27 years. According to Cerro Verde, the work will not interrupt current operations, which will continue normally.

According to the report, a total of 250 workers will be required, of which 225 will be skilled labor.

The document was prepared by consulting firm Insideo and can be downloaded from the box in the top-right corner of the screen.

Cerro Verde, controlled by the US company Freeport McMoRan, first announced the plan to invest US$2.1bn in November, when the company presented a citizen participation plan (PPC), a document prior to the MEIA.

Company executives have said that although the Cerro Verde deposits have low grades, the site has abundant resources to continue operating. Average processing has been increasing in recent quarters, but copper production between January and October 2024 fell 5.4% to 374,779t compared to the same period 2023, according to the energy and mines ministry.