Northern Chile's region I environmental regulator Corema approved an EIA for copper miner Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi's US$750mn expansion project, aimed at increasing ore processing capacity by 20% to 170,000t/d from the current 140,000t/d, the company said in a release.

The expansion will allow Collahuasi to increase overall production to 600,000t/y, a company spokesperson told BNamericas.

The expansion is part of the company's long term development plans and its EIA was submitted for environmental evaluation in 2009. It is expected to create 2,500 jobs during the construction stage and 300 once completed, the release said.

In related news, total output at Collahuasi – Chile's third largest copper mine – rose 15% last year compared to the previous year, according to the 2009 production report released by multinational resource group Xstrata (LSE: XTA), owner of a 44% stake in Collahuasi.

Xstrata said Collahuasi's copper production corresponding to its share in the mine totaled 216,800t in concentrate and 18,977t in cathode, compared to 182,585t and 21,732t, respectively, in 2008.

It added increased production was the result of higher milled volumes, grades and metallurgical recoveries, which more than compensated for the failure of the main feed conveyor to the concentrator plant in July 2009 that resulted in reduced throughput for 44 days. Overall copper production, in concentrate and cathode, at Collahuasi stood at 535,856t in 2009, compared to 464,356t turned out in 2008.

Anglo American (LSE: AAL) also owns 44% of Collahuasi, while the remaining 12% belongs to a group of Japanese companies headed by Mitsui.

In addition, copper cathode production at Xstrata's fully owned Lomas Bayas operation in region II increased by 24% to 73,043t from 59,134t in 2008. Increased output followed the completion of an expansion project in the last quarter of 2008 that more than offset the impact of an eight day strike in May, the company said.