* Stronger currency, higher construction costs hit project * Firms say production remains on target to begin in 2013 * Expect to reach full production in 2014 (Adds detail, background) TOKYO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - JX Nippon Mining and Metals Corp and Mitsui & Co said on Wednesday they expect the cost of developing a copper project in Chile to jump 50 percent from their original estimate to $3 billion due to the strong Chilean peso and higher construction costs. Recent rapid increases in construction costs around the world, including for labour and industrial materials, could push up copper prices in the future. JX and Mitsui said they would start production at the Caserones project in Chile in 2013 as originally planned and that rises in copper prices would help the mine be profitable. The 180,000 tonnes-a-year project, 75 percent-owned by JX and 25 percent by Mitsui, marks the first time JX will have managed the development and operation of a facility. They aim to reach full production in 2014, with planned refined copper output of 30,000 tonnes a year and copper concentrate of 150,000 tonnes. The strong Chilean peso and the higher construction costs will each boost the bill for the project by about $400 million, while design changes will push it up by $200 million, said Pan Pacific, a unit of JX Nippon Mining. Along with Caserones, several new mines, such as Xstrata's Las Bambas project in Peru and Vale's Salobo project in Brazil, are expected to come onstream from 2014. Elsewhere, Freeport MacMoran Copper and Gold Inc's giant Grasberg mine in Indonesia has been hit by strikes since September, tightening the market.

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