Teck acquires JV in Chile

Vancouver-based Teck (TEK-T) has acquired a 60% interest in the Lobo and Marte gold properties in Chile’s Maricunga district.

The agreement is between Teck, which is acting through wholly owned subsidiary Teck Gold, and the Emablos Group, which consists of Empresa Minera de Mantos Blancos, Minera Anglo American Chile and Inversiones Sudamerica.

Teck Gold will hold a 60% interest in Minera Santa Rosa, the company formed to develop a gold mining and milling operation on the properties. The Emablos Group will hold the remaining 40%.

Teck Gold acquired its interest in the joint venture by paying the Emablos Group US$35 million. It also paid US$16.1 million to Minera Cominco Resources Chile, a subsidiary of Cominco that previously owned part of the properties.

Emablos has the option to re-acquire 10% at the time of a production decision.

The Marte deposit was put into production as a heap-leach operation in 1989, but closed two years later owing to poor metallurgical recoveries. The partners plan to develop the two deposits simultaneously using a conventional carbon-in-pulp mill.

A feasibility study planned by Teck for 1997 will determine the technical and economic potential of a combined operation with a milling capacity of 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes per day.