Argentina tripled lithium carbonate production capacity in last two years
Argentina, the world's No. 4 lithium producer, has four projects in production.
Copper-zinc miner HudBay Minerals said Wednesday it has acquired the roughly 2.5m shares in Norsemont Mining it did not already own, giving it 100% ownership. The acquisition is set to increase HudBay’s copper output by about 145% when Norsemont’s Constancia mine in Peru comes into full production.
The news comes a day after the company announced it will spend $144m to build a new concentrator at its Lalor project in Manitoba, Canada.
Constancia will also up HudBay’s gold output, which is expected to increase 130% during the same period, HudBay said.
Reuters reported on Tuesday HudBay Minerals Inc plans to boost its investment in the Lalor zinc-copper-gold project in Manitoba:
HudBay said it now plans to spend C$144 million to build a new concentrator at Lalor, instead of refurbishing its existing concentrator at Snow Lake in Manitoba. This, coupled with new plant technology, will boost mine life and reduce operating costs at Lalor, the company said.
Canadian Business reported on the increased output and reduced long-term operating costs:
The company said operating costs per tonne are expected to drop 35 per cent compared with earlier estimates to $52 per tonne as the new concentrator is expected to enable a 29 per cent increase in ore milling capacity to 4,500 tonnes per day.
