Codelco announced the results of I quarter

The company Codelco is the world’s largest producer of copper. Its representatives reported on the results of I quarter of current year. According to them, the Chilean company received 534 million USD net profit before taxes. If we consider last year’s same period, there has been a loss in excess of 450 million USD. The company has considered the reasons that led to the return of profitability. One of the main was the increase in the global cost of copper. This trend was observed in the second half of 2016. Peak prices reached towards the end of February 2017. However, after this period the price of metals began to decline. The result was the redirection of the company for the solution of another problem — reducing its own costs. Codelco plans to reduce the cost of their most important at the moment of the project.

We are talking about the conversion to the largest open mine site Chuquicamata. Previously the cost of this development was estimated at 4 billion USD. To date the project is 50%. It was assumed that the exploitation of the mine will begin in 2019. By 2025, the annual production volume should reach 1.7 million tonnes of copper. To date, the company Codelco produces 11% of the total global amount of copper. However it is all the serious problem of exhaustion of assets. Also problem may be the decline in the quality of raw materials on belonging to Codelco mines. The company faced the need to restore and expand the resource base. The result was the investment program, the volume of which amounted to 25 billion USD. Recently, however, the company had to cut back on investing up to 18 billion USD.

Another project, which deals with Codelco — the development of lithium deposits. A number of companies expressed a desire to become partners of the largest copper manufacturer.