Storied Peruvian exec resurfaces at Canadian copper startup
After decades overseeing some of Peru’s biggest mines, Victor Gobitz has reemerged at the helm of a Canadian startup that has plans to begin copper production in a year and go public in the medium term.
Gobitz stepped down as CEO of a mine owned by BHP and Glencore to lead Quilla Resources, a firm he set up along with one family based in the UK and another in Peru. Quilla acquired a company from Nexa Resources in a bid to restart the Chapi copper mine in Peru. The new owner plans to start producing cathode in the first half of next year at an annual rate of about 10 000 metric tons.
The mine, south of the Peruvian city of Arequipa, was halted in 2012 due to declining metal prices and operational challenges. Average copper prices have risen about 15% since then, partly due to additional demand from the shift away from fossil fuels, when big new deposits are getting harder to find, develop and finance.
Gobitz, whose two daughters are also involved in his new Toronto-based venture, looks to use cash from the Chapi restart to finance work on other opportunities for the 26 000-ha land package — which isn’t far from a giant mine owned by Freeport-McMoRan.
“We’ll be a closely held company for a time — until we restart operations — and then we’ll evaluate going public,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “We believe the potential is there to find a deposit of large dimensions.”
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