COBRE PANAMA : FIRST QUANTUM MINERALS LTD .
First Quantum Minerals ( FQM ) has been around since the 1980s since when the TSX and LSE listed miner has been steadily growing its portfolio : today it operates or is developing a dozen major projects in nine countries
First Quantum Materials Ltd . recently commissioned the Trident development in Zambia , which was featured in Mining Global last year ; its focus is now the Cobre Panama Project in Panama .
FQM has adopted a self-performance model – it ’ s challenging , but it works for FQM . It ’ s unique to the company in that under one hard hat , it can manage geology , constructability studies , engineering , construction , commissioning , and operations . All of those energies create a powerful dynamic that reduces the initial capital expenditure for these projects .
Capex for the Cobre Panama project has just been revised down by nearly half a billion dollars from $ 6.4 billion to $ 5.95 billion . The way FQM executes construction self-performance is a game changer . Cobre Panama is some 27 kilometres
122 March 2016