Freeport Copper mill expansion plan 'on schedule'

Freeport Copper mill expansion plan 'on schedule'

NEW ORLEANS (Reuter): Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc said yesterday the fourth concentrator mill expansion undertaken by its principal mining unit, P.T. Freeport Indonesia Co, is on schedule and on budget, and proceeding toward no later than a mid-1998 start-up.

PT-FI achieved record average quarterly mill throughput of 130,800 metric tons of ore per day.

The optimum rate following this expansion is expected to be at least 190,000 to 200,000 tons per day, subject to certain approvals, Freeport said.

It said PT-FI's exploration activities within Block A continue to yield positive results and will favorably impact future mine planning and expansion decisions.

The Amole adit has now advanced approximately halfway across the Grasberg intrusive and exploration activities within the adit continue to confirm geologic and reserve models, the company said.

At Freeport Copper's Wabu porphyry prospect in Block B, geophysical surveying and surface mapping and sampling have identified a potential copper/gold target.

This target may represent the source of the mineralizing solutions responsible for the 3-4 million ounce gold resource previously announced at the Wabu Ridge prospect, Freeport said.

It said drilling activities at Wabu Ridge have continued to yield promising results and the near surface gold resource is expanding.

Exploration activities also continue in the Eastern Mining Blocks I, II and III areas. Three rigs are actively exploring in Block I to follow up on geophysical and geochemical anomalies previously identified.

Surface mineralization has been discovered in the Block II area and drilling activities are under way. Several anomalies have also been identified within Block III where follow-up exploration is planned for the second half of the year.

In the second quarter of 1997, Freeport said, its exploration joint ventures with Rio Tinto Plc incurred $11.8 million of exploration costs compared with $6.9 million in the 1996 quarter.

Freeport Copper said it reported $6.2 million of exploration expense in the second quarter of 1997 primarily for exploration costs incurred in the Eastern Mining and PT-FI Block B areas.

Costs in these areas are now being shared 60 percent by Freeport and 40 percent by Rio Tinto.

About $17 million remains to be applied toward the Rio Tinto exploration funding received in 1996 for PT-FI's Block A area, Freeport said.

The company said its smelter/refining unit in Spain, Atlantic Copper Holding SA, completed its $13 million "debottlenecking" project in June, increasing smelter capacity by 20,000 metric tons to 290,000 tons per year.

Atlantic is now fine-tuning its operations and working to increase its refining capacity to enhance profits further.