Reuters reported that Bolivia awarded a Chinese consortium called Henan Yuguang International Economic & Technical Cooperation a contract to build two zinc smelters at a cost of roughly USD 500 million.

Mr Hector Cordova head of Bolivian state mining firm Comibol said that the state owned Chinese group will provide financing for the project and the smelters are seen coming on line in 2015. This project will have Phases II the first will last about a year as the company carries out studies on the project's technology, location and engineering. Then comes the construction phase which will take about 2 years, so we expect to be functioning in 2015.

Mr Cordova said that each smelter will eventually have the capacity to process 100,000 tonnes of zinc concentrates a year but we will reach this quantity little by little. The smelters will be built in the highland regions of Oruro and Potosi.

(Sourced from Reuters)