Refinery at Codelco mine running below capacity
Source: Hoovers
The copper refinery at state giant Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile's Chuquicamata mine, while still the largest in the world, is running below its design capacity due to technological glitches, a person in the company said Monday.
In recent years, the refinery was upgraded to incorporate Falconbridge's Kidd Process technology, requiring a $280 million investment.
The upgrade was designed to expand the refinery's capacity to 700,000 metric tons of copper cathodes a year, in expectation of higher future copper output at the Norte division, where Chuquicamata is located, according to the source at the miner, known as Codelco.
Glitches, however, have prevented the refinery from reaching capacity, La Tercera newspaper reported this past weekend, quoting Chuquicamata union sources.
"The problem isn't the technology, which works fine in smaller refineries, it's just that it's never been applied at such a large scale," the person said.
He added the refinery is currently producing about 550,000 tons a year and is expected to reach design capacity in about a year or so.
"Despite the glitch, we have idle capacity at the refinery which we're offering to other miners in the area," he said.
Codelco, the world's largest copper miner, produced about 1.8 million tons of copper last year, and expects a similar output for 2007. |
