Bechtel Awarded Anglo American’s Los Bronces Development Project

Bechtel has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to execute Anglo American’s Los Bronces Development project. The work on this US$ 1.7 billion project will start immediately.

The Los Bronces mine is located 65 kilometers from Santiago and the existing operations comprise a mine, a 58,000 tons per day (tpd) copper concentrator, and two solvent extraction and electro-winning plants. The Los Bronces Development project will increase the daily throughput by 87,000 tpd by adding a new concentrator facility at Confluencia and Tórtolas II, both sites nearby the existing plant facilities. The scope of the new plant includes crushing and conveying, grinding and flotation circuits utilizing the largest proven equipment to maximize operating efficiency, plus concentrate regrind and a molybdenum plant.

Project management, engineering and procurement will be executed by Bechtel for 70% of the project and direct hire construction will be executed through a joint venture of Bechtel and Sigdo Koppers (BSK), who will provide the direct hire labor and supervision.

“We are very excited to be awarded this challenging project and to continue our strong working relationship with Anglo American,” said Paige Wilson, General Manager of Bechtel Mining & Metals for Latin America. “This will be the largest mining project in execution in Chile and the requirements of the project are a perfect fit with Bechtel’s and BSK’s capabilities.”

The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2010 to commence production in January 2011.

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For more information, contact:

Francis Canavan
Media Relations Manager
1-415-728-2832
fcanavan@bechtel.com