Publish Date : 03-Jun-2014
A group run by Amsterdam-based trader Trafigura Beheer began operations at a $163 Million minerals pier in Peru's biggest port Thursday to deal with rising transport demand from new mines and expansions in the central Andes.
Transportadora del Callao, a group made up of Trafigura, Glencore Xstrata's Perubar unit, Chinalco, local zinc-silver miner El Brocal and Peruvian port operator Santa Sofia Puertos, began operations at its 3.7 million mt/year pier and 3.5 km conveyor belt in Lima's port of Callao at a rate of 2,000 mt/hour.
The pier can handle copper, zinc and lead shipments from Chinalco's lately-launched $3.5 billion Toromocho copper mine, El Brocal's $456 million expansion of its Colquijirca concentrator plant, new zinc-silver mines being started up by Volcan and refined zinc and lead from the former Doe Run Peru smelter in La Oroya, all in the central Andes, said Ricardo Trovarelli, head of Trafigura's Impala Terminals unit.
The pier, which can handle ships up to 60,000 mt, will avoid the requirement for 130,000 trips per year by trucks between minerals deposits in Callao and the port, as per to Peru's Transport Ministry. The project, first planned in 1999, took 22 months to build after securing the permits as stated by Trovarelli.
'The mines in the central Andes shipped 2.8 million mt last year and we can handle nearly 4 million mt," Trovarelli told Platts Thursday in an interview at the pier in Callao's naval base. 'The project is well prepared for the next 20 years, but if there's the need, we can accelerate our engines."
Trovarelli said that Trafigura is now studying the construction of a 2.6 million mt/year minerals pier in Peru's northern Ancash region by 2016 to handle output from Votorantim Metais unit Milpo's $747 million Magistral copper project, Rio Alto Mining's $300 million La Arena copper sulfides expansion and Newmont's $4.8 billion Minas Conga copper-gold project.
Trovarelli said, "We've presented a private initiative to the government. The mining projects in the northern region have the potential to export 4 million tons a year”."The project is progressing."
Impala in addition intends this month to begin the second stage of a $123 million expansion to double capacity at its bulk handling facility in Callao, he said. Impala, which invested $78 million in the first stage of the project, plans to double yearly handling capacity to 4 million mt.
Metals traders are improving capacity as new mines and expansions are expected to double Peru's annual copper output to 2.8 million mt by 2016. Peru, the world's 3rd largest copper, zinc and tin producer, has lined up $60 billion in mining projects over the next decade, according to the Energy and Mines Ministry.
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