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Chile's state copper producer Codelco will need to spend around US$21bn within the next five years on goods and services to support its current operations, VP of shared services Juan Medel said. "That's the amount of money needed in goods and services just to maintain our current copper production levels," Medel said during the fifth suppliers meeting organized by Codelco in China as part of the Expo 2010 Shanghai international fair. Codelco has a US$15bn investment portfolio for the next five years to develop its four main projects to increase copper production from the current 1.7Mt/y to 2Mt/y, Medel said. Of the total, 7% will be used to finance engineering studies, 14% for the acquisition of heavy equipment and 79% in construction. The miner is inviting Chinese companies to participate in this process as suppliers. "We have seen that the kind of equipment we need is available in China. We are calling on Chinese companies to take part in the bidding processes we plan to start soon," Medel said. Codelco CEO Diego Hernandez said the first of the projects to start development is the Mina Ministro Hales greenfield copper project, about which the company needs to make a final decision by year-end.
