BHP billiton Inaugurates Spence copper operations

摘要

BHP Billiton CEO Chip Goodyear officially opened the company's new Spence copper mine in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile on March 25, 2007. The 1-billion dollars, open-pit, solvent extraction/ electrowinning (SX/EW) project is scheduled to reach its design capacity of 200,000 mt/y of copper cathodes during the third quarter of 2007. Spence is the first large-scale, green-field mining project to be developed in Chile in six years and the first large SX-EW project constructed globally since 2000. The project delivered its first ore to the crusher in September 2006 and achieved mechanical completion in early November. The tankhouse produced its first cathodes on Dec. 24, 2006.