:: Outokumpu Technology Provides Conceptual Engineering for Codelco's Chuquicamata Expansion

Outokumpu Technology has agreed with Codelco, the world's major copper producer, to carry out comprehensive Conceptual Engineering for the expansion of the Chuquicamata copper smelter and refinery capacity in northern Chile.

The contract is a further step of the Framework Agreement the companies signed in 2002 on Cooperation and Development in technology intensive projects to be executed by Codelco.

In the Conceptual Engineering Outokumpu Technology studies several technological alternatives to expand and upgrade the Chuquicamata plant for processing of complex concentrates with high arsenic content. A specific target of the project is to improve arsenic capture to fulfil the future environmental requirements as well as to improve the overall productivity of the Chuquicamata plant. The Conceptual Engineering will be carried out in two phases and it will be completed by the end of August 2005.