Ramp!SANTIAGO - Xstrata Copper's top executive joined his peers...

Ramp!

SANTIAGO - Xstrata Copper's top executive joined his peers on Wednesday in calling for another decade of supply constraint, even as the world's No. 4 producer pushes ahead on major projects in Peru and elsewhere.

While the choir of upbeat voices at this year's Cru/Cesco event is hardly unexpected, given prices at 20-month highs and China's unwavering expansion, it marks a stark reversal from one year ago, when the collapse in copper prices threatened to make all but the lowest-cost projects unviable.

"Over the last 12 months we have seen continued strong demand from China which has more than counterbalanced the significant reduction of copper demand in developed countries," Chief Executive Charlie Sartain told Reuters Insider TV at the CRU/CESCO copper conference in Santiago.

"Over the last five years the industry has struggled to meet demand increases. I see that situation continuing," he said.

Sartain, who heads the copper division of diversified miner Xstrata later told reporters he saw an increase in global copper demand of between 2 and 3 percent in 2010, and laid out the company's aggressive plans to expand output by 60 percent to 1,5 million tonnes annually by 2014.

FOCUS ON PERU

Projects in Peru, which holds the world's second-largest reserves behind Chile, are a focus, he said.

Sartain said the company expects to boost output at its 275 000 tonne per year Antamina copper joint venture in Peru by 20 to 30 percent starting from 2012.

The Antamina mine, in which Xstrata holds a 33,75 percent stake along with its partners BHP Billiton (33,75 pct), Teck-Cominco Limited (22,5 pct) and Mitsubishi Corporation (10 pct), also produces 165 000 tonnes of zinc annually.

Sartain said Xstrata Copper would also move ahead in September on its option to develop the Las Bambas project in the southern Peru copper belt. The option had been extended from its original deadline last year.

The company is carrying out feasibility and environmental impact studies on the Las Bambas, which should be completed in the coming few months.

Sartain said output was expected to be about 310 000 to 320 000 tonnes a year over the life of the project and 400 000 tonnes per year over the first nine years.