Quadra will contribute the Sierra Gorda project and the Franke mine, representing $900 million in assets, and SGID will contribute equivalent capital to the joint venture. Thereafter, each party can contribute 50% of any further equity requirement to maintain its interest. The parties will be entitled to their proportionate share of the concentrate or cathode production. The transaction is expected to close by October 2010.

Quadra will be responsible for supervising the day-to-day operations under the oversight and direction of a board of directors consisting of an equal number of representatives from both parties. SGID will lead the efforts of the joint venture to arrange the necessary project financing for the Sierra Gorda project, subject to a bankable feasibility study and other conditions. Capital costs to develop the project are estimated at $1.66 billion.

“Quadra’s agreement with SGID resolves the funding issue for the Sierra Gorda project and allows for development to proceed rapidly once we have the feasibility study and permits in place,” Quadra president and CEO Paul Blythe said.

The Sierra Gorda project is located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, 6 km south of BHP Billiton’s Spence mine and 9 km west of Antofagasta’s El Tesoro mine. A scoping study completed in July 2009 contemplates an open-pit mine and concentrator processing 111,000 mt/d of mill feed and producing an average of 138,800 mt/y of copper, 16 million lb/y of molybdenum, and 36,000 oz/y of gold over a 25-year mine life.

The Franke mine is a heap leach, SX/EW copper operation in northern Chile that harvested its first copper cathodes in July 2009 and achieved commercial production in October 2009. The plant has a design capacity of 66 million lb/y of copper cathode. Mine life is currently projected at nine years.