Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 (QB2) is Teck’s highest priority growth project. Once built, QB2 would transform our copper business, making Teck one of the world’s major producers of copper, at a time when the longer-term outlook for copper is very positive.
With a project permit expected mid-2018, and a possible sanction decision as early as the second half of this year, the QB2 project aims to develop the sulphide resource underlying the existing Quebrada Blanca Operations in Chile.
QB2 has a large resource, with an anticipated 300,000 tonnes of annual copper equivalent production over the first five years. Once in production,
QB2 will be a multi-generational asset that is expected to be a cornerstone for Teck for decades to come.
Interesting Extras
•If it were in production today, QB2 would be within the top 15 copper producers in the world.
•QB2 (the sulphide resource) is located under the existing Quebrada Blanca operation (the supergene resource). As a result, QB2 is effectively pre-stripped, which greatly reduces the cost and effort required to access the valuable ore.
•The anticipated 25-year mine life represents only about 25% of the known reserves and resources; there’s potential for a much longer mine life, or optionality for future expansion.
Development Plan
Development of QB2 is expected to include the construction of a new concentrating plant, a tailings facility, major infrastructure installations for transporting concentrate and sea water, and facilities to receive, filter and ship concentrate in the North Patache sector south of Iquique. Desalinated sea water—which will be taken from the coast and pumped through a pipeline to the mine—will be the primary source of water for the QB2 project.
