SANTIAGO, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. miner

Freeport-McMoRan ( FCX ) has begun the process of obtaining an

environmental permit for a $7.5 billion expansion of its El Abra

copper mine in Chile, the company said on Thursday.

The project is a joint venture between the company and

Chilean state-owned copper giant Codelco.

"This is a very significant project, not only in terms of

the investment, but also in terms of the additional production,"

the firm's manager in Chile Mario Larenas told reporters at a

press conference.

The expansion aims to increase the mine's production to

approximately 300,000 metric tons of copper per year, he added.

The executive declined to comment on a question over

Codelco's capacity to finance its share of the project.

CHILEAN GOVERNMENT WELCOMES EXPANSION

Freeport announced its intended El Abra expansion,

which it had postponed for years, in mid-2024. The project

involves the construction of a concentrator and a desalination

plant, and is expected to start operations in the coming decade.

Freeport owns 51% of El Abra, which produced 91,400 tons of

copper in 2025, with the remainder held by Codelco.

Chile's Mining Minister Daniel Mas welcomed Freeport's

decision, saying the company expects the permit process to take

about three years and emphasizing that companies must comply

with environmental laws.

"We have to go through all the compliance steps, and I

understand that in a few months' or years' time, the companies

will decide whether to proceed with the investment phase," he

told reporters after meeting with company executives.