The Antamina project, owned by BHP Billiton Plc, Noranda Inc., Teck Cominco Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corporation, is a $2.3 billion copper/zinc project, located in the Ancash Department in Perú. The project consists of an open pit mine, a 70,000 ton per day concentrator, a 302 Km. long concentrate pipeline, port facilities, a new access road, power line, and town site. The project is designed to produce up to 1.5 million tonnes per year of copper and zinc concentrates over a 23-year project life, and will be the third largest producer of zinc and the seventh largest producer of copper in the world. The project employed approximately 10,000 construction workers during the three-year construction period, and has a permanent workforce of approximately 1450 employees, the vast majority of which are Peruvian Nationals.
Project financing included securing $1.32 billion of senior loans from 22 export credit agencies and commercial banks. Financing required the project to comply with environmental and social guidelines and regulations as specified in Peruvian Law, the Environmental Impact Study, and World Bank Guidelines.
Since winning the privatization bid for the project in 1996, the company has implemented an approach to community development and environmental protection based on sustainable development principals. Throughout the development of the project, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to ensure full involvement of the local populations in community development activities and the company’s environmental program.
Due to its size, difficult logistics, cultural considerations and financial aspects, the project has faced a number of unique challenges in the area of environmental protection and management of community interaction. Antamina has been innovative in its approach to these issues, and as a result, has set new standards in Perú for environmental and community management, and sustainable development. This presentation will explore the challenges faced by the project, the approaches taken, and provides “lessons learned” which can be applied to other large international projects.
