UPDATE 1-China's Chinalco gets $2 bln loans for Peru mine

Chinese metals company Chinalco has obtained loans to finance its $2 billion Toromocho copper project in Peru, its president said on Thursday.

The sprawling mine could lift annual copper output in Peru, already the world's No. 2 producer, by 25 percent.

The project is the first investment in Peru for Chinalco, which joins the growing list of Chinese companies pouring money into the Andean country. Chinese mining firms have committed to spend about $6 billion in Peru's mining sector over the next three years.

"We've signed an agreement for financing of $2 billion from the Exim Bank of China to develop the Toromocho copper mine," Xiao Yaqing, President of Chinalco, said at a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, forum in Lima.

The state-owned Chinese company expects its Toromocho mine to start production in the first quarter of 2012, while construction could start in mid-2009.

Toromocho, which is located in the Andean province on Junin, has reserves of 2 billion tonnes, with a copper grade of 0.08 percent.

Annual copper output from the pit mine would be 210,000 tonnes for the first 10 years of the mine's expected three decades of operation.

Chinalco, the world's third largest aluminum producer and China's second-largest copper company, is the parent of Aluminum Corp of China

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