Environ authority suspends Xstrata 600MW Río Cuervo project

Published by MAC on 2007-03-22

Environ authority suspends Xstrata 600MW Río Cuervo project

BNAmericas

22nd March 2007

Chile's region XI environmental authority Corema has suspended the licensing process for Swiss natural resource group Xstrata's 600MW Río Cuervo hydro project, Corema president Viviana Betancourt announced. "This decision has been taken after the public services in the environmental area, which have participated in the evaluation process, pointed out in their reports that essential and relevant information to evaluate the EIS is missing," local press quoted Betancourt as saying. Xstrata confirmed the news in a statement.

However, the company still has a chance to submit a new study with more complete information, papers reported. Xstrata's local subsidiary Energía Austral is behind the US$600mn project, which was submitted to Corema in January this year. "We continue to believe that Río Cuervo is a good project that has the potential to be a major power source for Chile," Xstrata said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Chilean generator Colbún said it is not possible to add another plant to transmission company Transelec's project to build a 2,000km transmission line to connect region XI with the central grid (SIC), according to reports. The decision leaves Xstrata out of the Transelec transmission line project.

Xstrata's operations in Chile include 44% of the Collahuasi copper mine, 100% of the Lomas Bayas copper mine and 100% of the Altonorte copper smelter.