At least three Australian companies — BHP, South32, and Rinehart's Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration and Mining — are expected to bid for the Llurimagua copper concession when an international tender opens this year, according to reports. The tender follows the exit of Chilean mining giant Codelco, which had partnered with Ecuador's state-owned Enami.
Nestled in the Toisan range in northern Ecuador, Llurimagua is considered the jewel of the country's copper concessions. Widely reported to be worth more than US$3 billion ($4.3 billion), it could yield upwards of 210,000 tonnes of refined copper a year. The government is courting foreign investment to reduce dependence on oil, while global demand for copper surges.
Hanrine, a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting, has spent years lobbying for its mining rights, with its hardball pursuit drawing complaints from a major rival. The company has largely abandoned other concessions in nearby La Merced de Buenos Aires after a string of controversies over community opposition and the invasion of tenements by illegal gold miners backed by violent criminal groups, according to a major investigation by this masthead.
Local environmental advocate Carlos Zorrilla, who has fought to protect Intag's forests for more than three decades through his organisation DECOIN, said the valley is a refuge for hundreds of rare or endangered species. The area acts as a buffer and wildlife corridor for the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, one of the world's most diverse protected areas. Preliminary environmental impact studies from 1996 by Japan's International Co-operation Agency found significant ecological value.
Biologists and conservationists say an open-cut mine, as previously proposed for Llurimagua, would destroy a critical ecological treasure before it is fully understood. The remote, mountainous Andean valley's unique altitude and climate patterns create a home for brown-headed spider monkeys, spectacled bears, and more than two dozen types of amphibians.