BHP Group's joint venture partner Lundin Mining Corp. announced that the Filo del Sol project in South America has become the largest copper discovery in the last three decades based on new drilling results and analysis.
This is reported by Bloomberg.
The undeveloped deposit contains at least 13 million tons of metal, as well as a significant amount of gold and silver. Drilling is ongoing, and the estimated size of the deposit is increasing, Lundin stated.
Developing copper mines is becoming increasingly difficult and much more expensive, even though global demand for this metal is forecasted to grow, given its role in the energy transition,” the publication says. “Such a forecast has triggered a wave of mergers in the industry, as well as predictions of a persistent shortage — and higher prices — in the future.
The initial so-called mineral resources 'highlighted the potential of one of the most high-grade undeveloped open-pit copper projects in the world, as well as one of the largest resources of gold and silver in the world,' said the company's CEO Jack Lundin.
Last year, BHP acquired Filo Corp. for $3 billion in partnership with Lundin to gain ownership of two copper projects known as Filo del Sol and Josemaria, located on the Argentine-Chilean border.
It will take many years and billions of dollars to turn them into new mines.
BHP Group Limited is the largest mining company in the world. The company's headquarters is located in Melbourne.
BHP Billiton extracts bauxite, coal, copper, manganese, iron ore, uranium, nickel, diamonds, silver, and titanium minerals, as well as oil and natural gas. The company's mining operations are concentrated in 25 countries.
As reported, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, instructed to actively conduct geological exploration in the Mangystau region of the country to identify deposits of rare earth metals.
In April, the Ministry of Industry and Construction of Kazakhstan announced that a large deposit of rare earth metals had been discovered in the country.
The total estimated resources of the site in the Karaganda region are assessed at over 20 million tons with deposits at depths of up to 300 meters. The average content of rare earth metals is 700 grams per ton.
If the information is confirmed, Kazakhstan will rank behind only China and Brazil in terms of reserves, writes Reuters.
The Filo del Sol project for the extraction of copper, gold, and silver by open-pit mining is located in Chile's Atacama region (Photo: latam-news.co)
