Kinross Gold Corp. (KGC) announced that it plans to spend $1 billion to increase production in Chile, as reported by La Tercera, a Santiago-based newspaper. Citing Julio Bimbignac, vice president of Kinross’s Chile unit, the company will invest $650 million to begin operations at its Lobo-Marte gold project and $350 million to expand its Maricunga mine, both in the northern Chilean region of Copiapo. Kinross plans to submit the environmental-impact studies for the Maricunga expansion in 2010 and the reports for Lobo-Marte in 2012, the newspaper said.

Kinross Gold is a Canadian-based gold mining company with mines and projects in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Russia, employing approximately 5,500 people worldwide. In morning trading shares of KGC were down $0.45 to $20.62 and the gold price was down $2.40 to $991.93 per ounce.