Bolivia’s Vinto metallurgical complex (EMV) will inaugurate its new smelter with an Ausmelt furnace in November, state miner Comibol’s president Hugo Miranda told BNamericas. "The new plant with the Ausmelt furnace will make it possible to smelt more tin and we will be inaugurating it in November," Miranda said. Miranda was speaking following an inspection of the works by President Evo Morales, who acknowledged a delay in the project. The government has already paid the US$25.5 million required for the project, which will increase EMV’s tin concentrate processing capacity by 90% to 38,000tpy.
In a separate report a senior mining ministry official said that Bolvian refined tin production could rise by 50% in 2012. "That would allow Vinto to become the sixth largest tin smelter in the world," Mining Director Freddy Beltran told Reuters. The country’s refined tin production in 2010 amounted to 14,943 tonnes, of which 11,520 tonnes came from Vinto and the balance from the privately-owned OMSA smelter. However the planned increase in production at Vinto is dependent on the completion of a matching expansion of Comibol’s Huanuni mine. A contract for this is expected to be issued imminently, deputy mining and metals minister Héctor Córdova told BNamericas last week, following two unsuccessful tenders.
