SANTIAGO, Aug 8: Chile’s Antofagasta Minerals, a London-listed copper miner, expects to complete a feasibility study of its Reko Diq copper property in Pakistan by May next year, company President Marcelo Awad said on Thursday.

Awad said on the sidelines of a business conference in Santiago that the study contemplated mine output of 72,000 metric tons of mineral per day.

He said the figure could be raised to as much as three times that, but there was no plan to do so at the moment.

The Reko Diq property is jointly owned by Antofagasta with 37.5 per cent, Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp also with 37.5 per cent, and the Government of Pakistan.

The partners could develop enough capacity to process up to 220,000 tons of mineral per day, at a cost of some $5 billion, but that option has been discarded for the moment.

Under the smaller mine plan, Reko Diq would enter production in 2012, with output of some 150,000 tons of copper per year.

“We are analysing the 72,000,” Awad told journalists.

“There could be a rise but that will depend on what infrastructure is required.” He did not say how much the project would cost.

The Reko Diq project has a resource of some 4.5 billion tons of mineral, with the equivalent of 0.85 per cent copper including a gold credit.—Reuters