Reuters reported that Europe’s No 2 copper producer KGHM has applied for an exploration license in Kazakhstan to help it reach its long flagged target of 700,000 tonnes of annual copper output by 2018.
Mr Herbert Wirth CEO of KGHM told reporters “KGHM has placed a bid for a copper and other metals exploration concession in Kazakhstan. If we won it, the cost of reconnaissance works would be tens of millions of dollars. The site contains also gold and silver deposits.”
Mr Wirth's deputy Dorota Wloch said the tender should be decided in a matter of a few months.
Poland's state controlled miner is currently the world's ninth largest copper producer, with output at 527,000 tonnes, following its acquisition earlier this year of Canadian rival Quadra FNX for CAD 3 billion.
