Challenges and Operational Results Wet Area (LX-SX-EW)

摘要

In recent years the development of mining has been facing increasingly difficult projects from the perspective of environmental, social and economic sustainability. At the same time, Antofagasta Minerals has been a pioneer in low copper ore deposits, making it increasingly important to have and/or use low-cost capital and operating technologies, making these resources profitable.Antucoya considers the extraction of the ore through a conventional open pit operation, which gives rise to three types of material classified according to CuT law present in each of them: upper grade ore (0.2-0 , 4 %), mineral of marginal qualification (0.13 to 0.19 %) and sterile. Antucoya considers an estimated production of 80-85 thousand tons per year of fine copper in the form of cathodes. In this paper we present the achievements and challenges of the operation of the wet area (LX-SX-EW). The antecedents show the operative results obtained from the start-up to bring the plant to regime, highlighting the main challenges that have been faced: mineral quality, effect in the wetting and irrigation cycle, operating parameters extraction by solvent extraction and electrowinning.The operational results obtained confirm the feasibility design parameters and, in turn, provide opportunities for improvement, where operational excellence is key in the systemic and systematic management of excellence in performance through the use of capacity in processes, technology and human talent even more for this type of low-grade minerals.