Minera Panama SA has upgraded its original 2008 purchase of Metso grinding mills for the Cobre Panama project and has confirmed the resizing of the mills. The original grinding mill supply has been revised to now include two SAG mills of 40 ft (12.2 m) in diameter and four ball mills of 26 ft (7.9 m) in diameter.
According to Metso, the change is a consequence of more detailed throughput modelling conducted as part of the Basic Engineering phase and will provide a reasonable design margin over the nominal throughput of 150,000 t/d (dry). Delivery will be completed by the end of 2013. The Cobre Panama project is located approximately 100 km west of the Panama Canal. It is estimated that start-up will commence by the end of 2015. Once the new Cobre Panama mine is in full operation, the concentrator will be capable of processing ore at the 150,000 t/d rate over the first 10 years of operation.