Reuters reported that Canadian miner Ecuacorriente plans to start building a copper mine in Ecuador in November with an initial investment of USD 631 million.

Ecuacorriente said that the Mirador project has estimated reserves of 25 billion pounds of copper located in the South American country's southern province of Zamora Chinchipe.

Mr Ian Harris VP of Ecuacorriente said that "Our plan is to initiate construction on the mine in November this year. This project will involve internal infrastructure, opening the mine and a port for exports."

CRCC Tongguan, controlled by China's Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group and China Railway Construction agreed last year to buy the Vancouver based miner Corriente.

Ecuador has a nascent mining industry. Some larger projects were initially delayed as the government of President Rafael Correa hammered out new regulations for the sector. To supply energy to its project, Ecuacorriente plans to build a hydroelectric plant at an additional cost of around USD 100 million.

The executive said that e expect exploitation of copper to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012. Production at Mirador is forecast at 132 million pounds per year.

Ecuacorriente is also developing the Panantza San Carlos copper project. It is in the advanced exploration stage, with construction expected to start in the Q1 of 2013 with an investment of USD 1.3 billion.

Mr Harris said that Panantza San Carlos should be producing in the Q1 of 2015, estimating annual production at around 627 million pounds of copper.

He said that we hope to have a new environmental permit for the exploitation stage before the end of the year. Now we have a permit for the exploration phase.

(Sourced from Reuters)