Ecuador expects pre-construction works to begin at the Cascabel and Curipamba mining projects by the end of the year, and construction to kick off in 2024, energy and mines minister Fernando Santos told BNamericas.
“There's very encouraging news. We're negotiating the move to the production stage of both Cascabel and Curipamba, which will begin construction of their mines next year," Santos said.
The Cascabel copper-gold project is located in the northern province of Imbabura. It belongs to Australia's SolGold and will require an investment of US$2.75bn.
According to the pre-feasibility study, the Alpala deposit, the most important in the concession, contains 9.9Mt of copper, 21.7Moz of gold and 92.2Moz of silver in measured and indicated resources.
Cascabel will be an underground operation that SolGold expects to become one of the 20 largest copper and gold mines in South America.