Codelco aims for Chuquicamata underground in 2018
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008
yourindustrynews.com
Chilean state-owned copper company Codelco's largest division, Codelco Norte, aims to start underground output at the Chuquicamata mine in 2018, the division's general manager Sergio Jarpa said Wednesday.
By 2018 all the expansions to the pit at Chuquicamata, the company's largest mine, will likely be depleted of reserves and Codelco will need to start mining below the pit using underground methods to not halt production, Jarpa said at the CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago.
The general manager added that in 2011 Codelco Norte aims to start pre-stripping of the nearby Alejandro Hales deposit, now referred to as MMH, and the goal to start production is 2013.
Both MMH and underground mining at Chuquicamata are projects at the stage of conceptual engineering, according to Jarpa.
The projects are aimed at counteracting the effects of falling grades at Codelco Norte that affected Codelco's overall performance in 2007, he said.
"With the arrival of the MMH project the average grade [of the Codelco Norte division] will rise substantially," Jarpa said. "The same will occur with the start of underground Chuquicamata, which has better grades for copper and also molybdenum."
Meanwhile the Radomiro Tomic mine has been shipping surplus sulfide ore to Chuquicamata's two concentrators to keep them running at capacity.
Plans are in place to build a conveyor belt system to ship ore from Radomiro Tomic to the concentrators to replace the less-efficient truck transport in use, Jarpa added.
Sulfides from Radomiro Tomic could serve as compensation for any delays that might occur with the MMH and Chuquicamata projects, he said.
With all these projects in consideration, Jarpa said he expects Codelco Norte this year to see a drop in output to roughly 830,000t from just under 900,000t last year due to lower grades, but that it will rebound to 900,000t with the start of MMH.
Codelco is the world's largest copper producer with an output of 1.67Mt last year. |
