“Nueva Centinela represents the group’s confidence in copper as a basic materials for the worldwide vitality transition, the place Chile is named to be a number one nation,” Antofagasta’s chief government officer, Iván Arriagada, mentioned within the assertion.
“The undertaking is already selling regional employment and the event of native suppliers, which is important for this funding to be a related contribution to the area and its inhabitants,” Arriagada mentioned.
First actions of fabric have additionally begun within the space the place the brand new thickened tailings will probably be positioned. In line with Antofagasta, this know-how minimizes the requirement for contemporary water and maximizes its restoration.
The Centinela mine has been utilizing this sort of waste storage because the starting of its operation and will probably be replicated in Nueva Centinela, the corporate mentioned.
The enlargement undertaking, accredited in December, additionally contains rising the present molybdenum plant’s capability and a brand new improvement of the Esperanza Sur pit, with the introduction of recent autonomous vans.
Antofagasta mentioned that Nueva Centinela will incorporate different superior applied sciences, corresponding to excessive strain grinding rolls, crushers that function with giant rollers and a system that may optimize the grinding course of and scale back vitality consumption, particularly when treating more durable ore. It additionally features a low-friction belt of greater than six km, in size to attach the crushing space and the focus plant.
The Centinela mining complicated, positioned in Chile’s Antofagasta area, was created in 2014 from the merger of the Esperanza and El Tesoro mines. It produces copper concentrates containing gold and silver, utilizing a milling and flotation course of, amongst different progressive processes.
Centinela’s second concentrator is predicted to begin operations in 2027 and greater than 13,000 folks will work on the peak of the undertaking’s building, which is able to prolong the mine’s helpful life for 30 extra years.