Submitted by SRSrocco on April 25, 2012 - 11:11am.
Hat Tip! 12
Chile $100bn copper push under threat on power scarcity

President of Chilean mining lobby group Consejo Minero, Joaquin Villarino, says the country will have to shelve many of its mining investments due to the high cost and scarcity of electricity.

Author: By Matt Craze
Posted: Wednesday , 25 Apr 2012

The biggest-ever pipeline of copper projects is under threat as Chile, the world's top producer, struggles to contain rising opposition to new power plants.

At least 5,000 megawatts of capacity, including a $5 billion coal-fired plant proposed by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, are facing delays or have been shelved as companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Anglo American Plc spend as much as $100 billion on copper and metals projects in Chile.

The country, struck by a power blackout as recently as this week, needs to boost capacity by 47 percent within 8 years to keep pace with consumption. Protesters from fishermen to university students oppose the plants, prompting miners to consider their own projects to help meet China's copper demand.

"Chile will have to shelve many of the country's mining investments due to the high cost and scarcity of electricity," Joaquin Villarino, president of mining lobby group Consejo Minero, said in Santiago on April 19. Delays will jeopardize a "significant" part of the proposed mine investments, he said.

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This is the exact problem that I have been writing and warning about. They burn a lot of DIESEL in Chile to run powerplants that supply electricity to run mining equipment as they don't have enough electric generation. The irony in this news article is that they fail to mention FUTURE DIESEL SUPPLIES in this same scenario.

This is the most HILARIOUS part of the article (or lack of there of). They are worried about not having enough ELECTRIC GENERATION for the mining industry which consumes a fifth of the power in Chile, but don't consider if there will be adequate DIESEL SUPPLIES to run these huge mining operations.

The BRAIN DAMAGE is everywhere. The world does not realize it will not have the POWER (Electric or Liquid Fuel) to continue the kind of growth that is forecasted. I just finished an article that I sent to WORLD BIZ MAGAZINE on this issue. It covers energy as it pertains to GOLD and COPPER MINING. Once they publish it on their international publication, I will bring out a longer version a week after that publish date on the internet.... sometime at the end of MAY.

India is facing huge BROWN OUTS and BLACK OUTS due to the fact that it can't get enough coal to burn in the power plants to run the infrastructure it currently has. This is going to get very ugly in the next several years.

This situation of growing power demands without the ability to meet them will do WONDERS for GOLD and SILVER