Codelco, the country's national copper company, awarded French consortium Vinci Construction Grands Projets (60%) and Soletanche Bachy (40%) the EUR292 million contract to design and build two 9 km-long parallel tunnels in El Teniente Mine in Chile. Drill/blast will be employed for an average cross section of 65 sq m. The project includes two intermediate access tunnels, totalling 6 km. Work starts in October, 2011 and will take 40 months. Visit www.vinci.com. 39/11.
