Fluor Corporation has announced that it has been awarded a contract worth more than $700 million to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services on a project to process marginal ore at the world's largest operating copper mine in northern Chile. The contract was awarded by Minera Escondida, a Chilean joint-venture mining company owned by an international consortium led by BHP Billiton.

The project will allow use of a proprietary leaching process on marginal run-of-mine sulphide ore from the existing Escondida pit, located 100 miles from the port city of Antofagasta, and a second, nearby pit currently in development. The resulting leachate will be further treated by project-supplied solvent extraction and electrowinning facilities to produce copper cathodes that will be exported to customers. Production is planned to begin in the second half of 2006. Also included in the project is a seawater desalination plant and pipeline that will provide additional process water to the Escondida mine site. The plant will be located at Minera Escondida's existing port facility near Antofagasta.