Chile’s ENAMI wins environmental permit for new $1.7B copper smelter

Chile’s state-run mining company ENAMI said on Wednesday it received an environmental permit for a new $1.7 billion copper smelter, as part of the modernization of its Hernan Videla Lira smelting facility in the northern Atacama region.

The new facility will process up to 850,000 metric tons of copper concentrate per year and its electrolytic refinery will produce up to 240,000 tons of copper cathodes – used in electronics, construction and renewable vehicles.

ENAMI said in a statement that the modernized facility in Paipote would “ensure profitable and sustainable operations, and practically triple the capacity of the old smelter.”

The company’s vice president Ivan Mlynarz told Reuters earlier this month that copper consumers’ interest in expanding their supply chain could help them secure funding for the project.

(By Fabian Cambero, Brendan O’Boyle and Sarah Morland; Editing by Natalia Siniawski)