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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (17690)	4/14/2008 10:27:20 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193988

FCX position on Tenke copper/cobalt megaproject defined mineweb.co.za Freeport McMoran CEO Adkerson says the start-up date for the giant Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt project in the DRC hangs on a mutually acceptable agreement being reached with the country’s government. Author: Alden Bentley Posted: Thursday , 10 Apr 2008 SANTIAGO, CHILE (Reuters) - The estimated 2009-2010 timetable for production to start at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's giant copper and cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo hangs on resolving a contract disagreement with the government. "We haven't formally pushed it back, but clearly we need to get this issue with the government to a mutually acceptable resolution," Freeport McMoRan Chief Executive Richard Adkerson told Reuters. Last month, Congo's mines contract review commission recommended renegotiation of state miner Gecamines' partnership with Freeport McMoRan on developing Tenke Fungurume, thought to be one of the biggest copper and cobalt deposits in the world. "We believe that our contract is a fair one with respect to the government and provides us the incentive to invest," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual CESCO and CRU copper conferences here. Adkerson said that the government was trying to reopen the issue of its share in the project, but said that by international standards, the government's participation was already very fair. "Their total participation in the project would be greater than 50 percent of the economics of the project," he said, adding that would include equity interest, income taxes to be paid by Freeport and royalties. "It's a co-operative process we're having with them, but we need to get it resolved," Adkerson said. Construction has already started on the project and Freeport has been aiming to start mineral production in 2009-2010. But there are huge infrastructure and cost challenges in building a remote mine in the Central African nation. Yet the potential rewards to be found at Tenke Fungurume, which spans 600 square miles, are huge. "This first project isn't the story about our undertaking in the Congo. This is a very large concession that has extensive mineralization throughout the concession. We don't really understand it yet," Adkerson said. "We have our eye toward a series of projects and not just this initial project."