Bolivia’s state-run Huanuni tin mine is on course to more than double production by March, according to mining and metallurgy minister Luis Alberto Echazú, while a planned furnace refurbishment at the Vinto smelter by August will provide extra capacity there.
“The government’s policy is to increase production. We think that by March we’ll be producing some 1,500 tonnes of tin (in Huanuni),” he was quoted as saying by La Razon newspaper, adding that higher volumes would result in lower production costs. Official statistics show that in January-September 2008 the mine produced 5,743 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate, a monthly rate of some 640 tonnes.
A temporary increase in capacity at the Vinto smelter is to be achieved by the re-commissioning of an old rotary furnace which has been out of action for 14 years. In the longer-term the plant will install a new Ausmelt furnace. Echazú maintained that from August Vinto will be producing “an average of over 1,000 fine tons of tin and the rotary furnace will help in the production until we hook up the new furnace”, installation of which is planned for 2010. Vinto produced 6,485 tonnes of refined tin in January-September 2008.
