Collahuasi says to slash costs to under $1/lb in 2018

The giant Collahuasi deposit in Chile. (Image courtesy of Minera Collahuasi)

SANTIAGO, April 10 (Reuters) – Chilean miner Collahuasi said on Tuesday it expected to slash production costs to under $1 per pound of copper this year as it makes use of new technology and optimizes its operations.

Collahuasi, owned by Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc, is located in northern Chile and is among the world’s largest copper mines.

“We’ve decreased our costs to $1.14 (per pound), and we think that this year they will go below one dollar,” said Collahuasi Chief Executive Officer Jorge Gomez during a talk at the CRU/CESCO World Copper Conference in Santiago.

Collahuasi produced 524,000 tonnes of copper in 2017.

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Fabian Cambero; editing by Jonathan Oatis)