(AGI) Rome, May 30 - Italy's Astaldi Group has won a 460 million dollar contract to extend Chile's Chuquicamata Underground Mining Project. Local and international bidders had been vying for the contract to extend underground the largest open pit copper mine in the world. National Copper Corporation of Chile (CODELCO) has allocated 4 billion dollars to the largest mining project ever mounted in Chile. It includes 43 kilometres of tunnels, underground excavations over 165,000 cubic metres and 4.6 kilometres of vertical excavations. Work is due to start in September and is likely to take 51 months. Astaldi has already carried out two major stages of the project for 450 billion dollars. It has also set up and operates a plant for treating the sludge produced by the Andina Mine, which cost 55 million dollars. Astaldi has been operating in Chile for around 10 years in the transport infrastructure, energy production and healthcare construction sectors. The group also won the contract for the European Southern Observatory's European Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the world's largest optical/near-infrared telescope. It built and operates the Chacayes 111 MW hydroelectric power station, and is modernising Santiago's Arturo Merino Benitez Airport, Chile's largest airport which handles 15,000,000 passengers a year. It is also building and will operate Santiago's 599-bed West Metropolitan Hospital. (AGI)
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