Antofagasta ‘well on track’ to achieving climate targets
Chile-based Antofagasta is committed to mitigating and adapting to climate change, CEO Ivan Arriagada said this week, stating that the London-listed company was “well on track” to achieving its target of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 300 000 t by 2022.
The copper miner is taking advantage of the price of renewable energy, which in Chile is cheaper than more polluting technologies, to decarbonise its electricity supply.
Antofagasta’s mining operations are progressively converting to 100% renewable energy. The Zaldívar mine started its transition at the beginning of last month.
The company last year announced that, from 2022, the mining division would use only renewable energy.
“We believe this is an important milestone and it is part of our commitment to operating sustainably,” Arriagada said this week.
On water, he said that it remained a “critical” challenge, particularly for Los Pelambres mine.
“Last year was the driest year of a ten-year drought in Choapa Valley. And although rainfall in the first six months of the year has been greater than all of the rainfall in 2019, we're continuing to optimise our usage to ensure sufficient water availability to fulfil our plans at Los Pelambres.”
Antofagasta is building a desalination plant at Los Pelambres and has announced plans for a future expansion of the plant to 800 ℓ/s. The changes to the desalination plant and marine works would cost about $150-million.
In the case of Centinela and Antucoya, the miner already used seawater, which accounted for 46% of the total water consumption.
At Zaldívar, it had applied for extension of water permits from 2025 to 2031.
“We have made important progress on innovation and the current situation is enabling the acceleration of these changes both with our transformation portfolio and in facilitating new ways of working becoming more flexible and adaptable,” Arriagada said.
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