Description: Cerro Verde is an open-pit copper and molybdenum mining complex.

Did you know? Cerro Verde was once government-owned. The Peruvian government acquired the property from Anaconda in 1970 and divested itself of the property in 1994. Cerro Verde has the third oldest SX/EW facility in the world.

Location: 20 miles southwest of Arequipa, Peru, the country’s second largest city.

Ores: The predominant oxide copper minerals are brochanite, chrysocolla, malachite and copper “pitch.” Chalcocite and covellite are the most important secondary copper sulfide minerals. Chalcopyrite and molybdenite are the dominant primary sulfides.

Processes and facilities: Crusher/conveyor, agglomerating facility, stacker/conveyor and SX/EW facility.

Expansion: Cerro Verde recently completed a mill expansion project to process sulfide ore reserves through a new concentrator. Completed in 2006, the mill has a design capacity of 108,000 metric tons of ore per day. Processing of sulfide ore began in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Background: Spaniards mined high-grade copper oxide ore from Cerro Verde and shipped it to Wales in the mid-1800s. Anaconda owned the property from 1916 until 1970, when the mine was acquired by the state. The government mined Cerro Verde’s oxide ores and built one of the world’s first SX/EW facilities in 1972. Cyprus Amax purchased the operation in 1994 and invested substantial capital in the property to upgrade and improve productivity. In the eight years after privatization, copper production increased by about 350% and costs were reduced by more than 40%. Cerro Verde became part of the Freeport-McMoRan mining portfolio in 2007.

Ownership: 53.56% Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, 21% SMM Cerro Verde Netherlands B.V., 18.5% Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A., and 6.94% by other shareholders whose shares are publicly traded on the Lima Stock Exchange.

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