Inmet to decide on Panama project partners by mid-2012
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By: Liezel Hill
28th June 2011
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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Inmet Mining expects to decide on potential additional partners for its Cobre Panama copper project in the first half of 2012, CEO Jochen Tilk said on Monday.
Inmet has already sold an option to buy 20% of the project to a Korean consortium.
The company is targeting an eventual ownership of between 40% and 60%, but could also fund the full 80% if it decided to go that route and assuming the Korean option is exercised, Tilk said at the firm's annual shareholder's meeting.
A new 20% partner would probably be a “passive investor” who is a global copper buyer, while the company would likely be looking at a fellow mining company if it opted to sell 40% in the project to a new partner, and keep only 40% itself, he said.
“We will look at all options,” he said. “From a management perspective, what we are trying to do is create as many scenarios as possible.”
“There is no rush to get any deal done,” he said. “Time works in our favour. We are under no rush and no pressure.”
The company still expects the Panamanian government to approve the environmental- and social-impact assessments for the project in September, he said.
Basic engineering will also be completed before year-end, after which Inmet will update the capital and operating cost estimates for the project.
If all goes to plan, early construction work will begin in early 2012, with first concentrate production scheduled by the end of 2015.
The company plans to complete an updated NI 43-101 statement by year-end, that will include the new Balboa discovery at Cobre Panama.
Besides Cobre Panama, Inmet has base-metals and gold mines in Spain, Turkey, Finland and Canada.
In January, the company agreed to merge with fellow Canadian Lundin Mining, to form a new copper producer worth some $9-billion, but the deal was broken off after Lundin became the target of an unsolicited takeover offer from Equinox Minerals.
The Cobre Panama project (previously know as the Petaquilla copper project) is expected to produce an average of 255 000 t/y of copper, 90 000 oz of gold, 1.5-million ounces of silver and 3 200 t of molybdenum over a 30-year mine life.
Tilk said in a speech last week that he is confident the government will approve plans for a coal-fired power plant to supply the Cobre Panama project.
Reports that the State had objected to the coal plant, and wanted Inmet to use natural gas instead, were exaggerated, he said at a conference in Toronto.
Inmet shares rose 0.7% on Monday, to C$65.82 apiece by 16:16 in Toronto.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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