Southern Copper: production by 2030

Southern Copper Corporation (SCC) is developing a new organic growth plan that aims to increase its copper production volume to 1.7 million tons by the end of this decade.

The company’s capital expenditures were US$948.5 million for 2022. This is 6.3% higher than in 2021 and represented 36.2% of net income.

For 2023, the company’s Board of Directors approved a capital investment program of $1,099.6 million.

SCC is one of the world’s largest integrated copper producers.

Southern Copper Corporation

Its major production includes copper, molybdenum, zinc and silver.

All of its mining, smelting and refining facilities are located in Peru and Mexico and it conducts exploration activities in those countries and in Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.

Southern Copper

Copper mine production in 2022 fell 6.6% to 1,972.5 million pounds, down from 2,112.5 million pounds in 2021.

The decrease was due to a drop in production at the Cuajone mine (-17.0%; due to the shutdown), a decrease in production at the Toquepala mine (-12.2%, lower grades) and a drop in production at the La Caridad mine (-12.7%, lower grades).

Conversely, this was offset by a slight increase in production at the Buenavista operations (+2.1%; SX-EW production) and the IMMSA unit (+4.8% higher ore grades).

At the same time, molybdenum production decreased 13.3% to 57.8 million pounds, down from 66.7 million pounds in 2021.

This decrease was due to a reduction in production at our Toquepala (-27.8%, lower grades), Cuajone (-13.5%, lower recovery) and La Caridad mines (-6.3%, lower recovery); this was offset by an increase in production at our Buenavista operations (+2.8 percent).

Zinc production fell 10.4 percent in 2022, driven by decreases in production at our Charcas (-16.0 percent) and Santa Barbara (-11.0 percent) operations due to lower ore grades.

Its Peruvian copper operations involve mining, milling and flotation of copper ore to produce copper concentrates and molybdenum concentrates; the smelting of copper concentrates to produce blister and anode copper; and the refining of copper anodes to produce copper cathodes.

Also, as part of this production process, the company produces significant amounts of molybdenum concentrate and sulfuric acid.