Anglo American withdraws most employees from Quellaveco

Anglo American announced the temporary withdrawal of the majority of employees and contractors from its Quellaveco copper project in Peru on Tuesday, following the Government of Peru's announcement of a 15-day national quarantine to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

The FTSE 100 mining giant said construction work would therefore be “significantly” slowed, with only critical areas continuing as normal, until such time as workers could return safely.

“The safety and health of everyone must come first, ever more so at times such as these,” said chief executive officer Mark Cutifani.

“We are in the process of safely demobilising most of the 10,000 strong construction workforce at our Quellaveco copper project, in support of the Government of Peru's measures to control the spread of Covid-19.

“Our development of this world-class project has progressed ahead of schedule and within our budget and we would expect to be able to accommodate this slowdown within our market guidance on both timing and costs at this stage.”

The Quellaveco copper project was previously expected to begin production in 2022, with an expected capital cost of between $5bn (£4.08bn) and $5.3bn.

During the first 10 years of full production, Quellaveco was expected to produce around 300,000 tonnes per year at a cash cost of $1.05 per pound of copper.