I received a response from my mate:"From what I can see there...

I received a response from my mate:

"From what I can see there are roadworks on the ruta 5, but it looks like there are detours in some places and some lane closures, which doesn't make it impossible to deliver, but obviously slower. It might depend on where they are transporting goods to."

He's provided me the link below that has current status of the roads. It's in Spanish though. I'll try and find someone who can translate.

http://www.mop.cl/Prensa/estadocarreteras20102011/Paginas/SantiagoZonaSur.aspx

As for the large scale and advanced discussions... I just don't know. This company seems to change focus quite often.
It used to be about Ecuador which was then terminated by the government there.
Then in 2010 it was all about Quince in Chilé. They had some great drilling results apparently. We were all awaiting analysis on these results from Canada.
In 2011 whilst in China attempting to find partners to develop Quince, inexplicably they started drilling for Gold in Yunnan. Quince completely disappeared. Whatever happened to that??? It was their most valuable asset!
In 2012 focus was back to Chilé but this time in Putú. Don't know whatever happened to Yunnan. Most of the updates suggested they didn't do anything because it was raining.
Now they've stopped work on Putú due to road maintenance. Ecuador seems to be taking a more prominent position again. It wouldn't surprise me to see an announcement for a new project and for Putú to disappear from all updates within 6 months.