VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Chilean State-owned copper miner Codelco has received environmental approval to implement a revised expansion plan at its El Teniente mine, which contributes the most copper to the miner's production profile.
Codelco advised on Thursday that, despite the expansion project currently being executed and 44% complete, the revised permits allow it to exploit the deposit's reserves in a staggered manner, gradually deepening the operation.
Codelco approached environmental authorities in July last year after it became apparent that new construction techniques and technologies would be required to overcome the geotechnical difficulties that complicated the progress of the project, and to improve safety.
The new plan calls for a new mining level to be developed about 300 m below existing infrastructure, in the Andes Norte sector, without impacting on the existing approved parameters for the mine.
A Codelco executive said that the expansion aims to add a further 50 years of operations to the century-old mine. The mine has paid about $15-billion in revenues to government in the past ten years.
El Teniente will continue to produce about two-billion tonnes a year of ore, producing about 450 000 t/y of copper. The expansion is expected to be fully on line by 2023.
The Codelco board approved $293-million in 2018 for the expansion, which forms part of a larger $22-billion capital programme that aims to resuscitate the world's largest producer of the red metal's tired mines.