Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Stage	Permitting
Commodities	Copper Gold Silver
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Española project is a satellite deposit located 4 kilometers southwest of the Candelaria Open Pit. The Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) for the extension of operations and mine life for its Candelaria Copper Mine was approved by the Regional Environmental Commission of Atacama (“COEVA”) on September 8, 2023. Approval represents a key milestone towards successfully extending the operational life, including development of the La Española open pit.

Deposit type

• Vein / narrow vein
• Manto
• IOCG

Summary:

The Española project is in the south portion of Candelaria-Punta del Cobre district, 2.5 kilometres southwest from the Candelaria open pit. It occurs in the contact aureole between the Copiapó batholith and sedimentary and volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Chañarcillo Group and the Punta del Cobre Formation in a tectonically depressed block controlled by San Gregorio fault system.

The copper mineralization (oxides, sulphides and mixed) is hosted mainly in brown garnet skarn levels and in quartz hornfels in the upper part of the stratigraphic sequence (Abundancia Formation) with mantos characteristics.

The main lithological types on surface are assigned to the Abundancia Formation and were affected by different metamorphic processes during emplacement of the Copiapó batholith. In the eastern portion of the area, there is a fault contact with the volcanic and volcanoclastic rocks of the Punta del Cobre Formation.

Mineralization
In the Española project area, the primary dominant copper sulphide is chalcopyrite found as clusters and in disseminated form commonly associated with brown garnet porphyroblasts. Gangue minerals are pyrite and iron oxides (magnetite-hematite). Near the surface and down to a depth of approximately 70, the mineralization is oxidized, characterized by the presence of chrysocolla, malachite, native copper, diogenite and bornite.

The mineralized bodies are arranged as mantos and are hosted mainly in the brown garnet skarn and in less proportion in silica hornfels. Locally in the south part of the project veins and veinlets of metric thicknesses are observed that were interpreted in parallel to the Española vein-fault.

Deposit Types
The copper-gold sulphide mineralization present at the Candelaria Copper Mining Complex is
generally referred to as iron oxide copper gold (IOCG). Depending on lithology and the structural
setting, the polymetallic sulphide mineralization can occur as veins, hydrothermal breccias,
replacement mantos, and calcic skarns (Sillitoe, 2003).

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

Metrics
Waste tonnes, LOM	....
Ore tonnes mined, LOM	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Dec 31, 2022
.......................	.......................		Mar 3, 2024