Andean Group - November 2011 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Copper deposit: Héctor Córdova, the president of Bolivia's state mining company, Corporación Minera de Bolivia (Comibol), has confirmed that the Corocoro deposit, which it is developing through a joint venture with South Korea's Korea Resources Corporation (Kores), could contain about 100m tonnes (t) of ore – some ten times more than was first assumed when the joint-venture was established in 2008. He said the project plans to produce 30,000t of cathode copper annually and that the deposit, which spans an area of 27km² contains other metals such as manganese, gold and silver. The construction of a mine and a processing plant is due to begin in 2013. Copper exports accounted for just 0.5% of Bolivia's metallic mining exports, which totalled US$1.68bn in the first half of 2011, a 46% increase on the same period in 2010 (due to higher prices). Bolivia's main metal export is silver, which accounted for 40% of exports in the first half of the year, followed by zinc (28%) and steel (15%).