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Chile
El Teniente Mine

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 Location:
22 km NE from Rancagua, Chile

  Address:
Millán 1020
Rancagua
Chile
Phone(56)-72-229-2945
EmailEmail
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Molybdenum
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Sulphuric acid
Mining Method
  • Block caving
Production Start1905
Mine Life2072
El Teniente is the largest underground copper deposit in the world.


Owners

Source: p. 20
CompanyInterestOwnership
Codelco Corp. (operator) 100 % Indirect
Codelco, as a productive business, grouped all the deposits (The El Teniente, Andina, Exotica, Chuquicamata and El Salvador) into a single mining, industrial and commercial corporation.

Codelco Corp. operates seven mine sites (known as “divisiones”): Chuquicamata, Ministro Hales, Radomiro Tomic, Gabriela Mistral, Salvador, Andina, El Teniente, in addition to the Ventanas Smelter and Refinery.

Contractors

ContractorContractDescriptionRef. DateExpirySource
Sandvik Equipment procurement or fabrication Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions says it has received a major order for the AutoMine® load and haul automation system valued at about SEK 250 million ($28 million) from Chile’s Codelco to be used in the El Teniente mine. In addition, a connected load and haul equipment order, with an initial value of SEK 150 million, was received, bringing the total value of the orders to SEK 400 million, Sandvik said. The contract will run from 2022 through 2027 at the Andes Norte block cave. Jan 4, 2022 2027
Schwager S.A. Plant maintenance Sewell Maintenance Contract El Teniente Division of Codelco Dated October 10, 2019, subsidiary Schwager Service S.A. has accepted the award from Codelco El Teniente Division, the service of "Comprehensive maintenance and cleaning of Sewell plant" service that will be executed for a total amount of ThCh$13,643,572 (Net Value) under the lump sum modality. The contract will be executed from October 21, 2019 and with a duration of 91 months. Oct 21, 2019 7.6


Deposit Type

  • Porphyry
  • Breccia pipe / Stockwork

Source: Source

Summary:

Chile’s El Teniente deposit is the largest known porphyry Cu-Mo orebody (>70 Mt Cu), and is genetically related to Late Miocene–Early Pliocene igneous activity on the western slopes of the Andean Cordillera (cf. Howell and Molloy, 1960, Camus, 1975, Cuadra, 1986, Skewes and Stern, 1995). The deposit is 2700 m long by 1000 to 1700 m wide and is elongated in a N-S direction, with a recognized vertical extent of about 1800 m. Approximately 80% of the copper at El Teniente is distributed within a stockwork of mineralized veinlets and minor hydrothermal breccias within pervasively altered andesites, basalts and gabbros that are part of the Upper Miocene country rocks. Two intrusive bodies occur within the deposit, the Sewell Diorite (actually a tonalite) in the southeast part of the orebody and the dacitic Teniente Porphyry in its northern part. The Teniente Porphyry occurs as a north-south trending dike 1500 m long and 200 m wide. Minor quartz-diorite or tonalite intrusions known as the Central Diorite and the Northern Diorite occur along the eastern side of the deposit. Hydrothermal breccias commonly occur along the contacts of intrusive bodies with the country rocks. The Braden Breccia is a conspicuous diatreme in the center of the deposit that forms a pipe 1200 m in diameter at the surface, narrowing to 600 m at a depth of 1800 m. The Braden diatreme pipe is poorly mineralized (~0.3% Cu), but it is surrounded by the copper-rich Marginal Breccia, a discontinuous rim of tourmalinematrix hydrothermal breccia.

Latite dikes intrude El Teniente, some forming altered ring dikes that encircle the Braden breccia pipe. After mineralization had ceased, the southern section of the deposit was cut by a 3.8 ± 0.3 Ma lamprophyre dyke, marking the end of igneous activity (Cuadra, 1986). Biotitedominated K-silicate alteration is widespread within the orebody. In contrast, pervasive phyllic alteration is restricted to ‘diorite’ intrusions, and to the Braden and Marginal breccias. Phyllic alteration primarily occurs as quartz-sericite haloes of quartz–sulfidesulfate veinlets within the perimeter of the orebody, and slightly overprints potassic alteration. Propylitic alteration occurs largely peripheral to ore-grade rock. The relatively restricted development of phyllic alteration and the occurrence of the central breccia conflict with the classic porphyry copper model of Lowell and Gilbert (1970), but El Teniente may be regarded as a “variation on a theme” of the classic model, as suggested by Gustafson and Hunt (1975).


Mining Methods

  • Block caving

Source: p.113,133

Summary:

A typical level model used at El Teniente mine: block caving, production, ventilation, transport and crushing.

(Translated from Spanish)
Teniente Projects Portfolio consists of the following projects: Andes Norte Nuevo Nivel Mina (NNM), Diamante and Andesita, formerly Nuevo Nivel Mina, the original project, and which will extend the division operations by 50 years. We started mining Teniente Level 9, the deepest level compared to other areas currently in production.

In November 2022, Codelco launched the first 100% electric underground LHD (Load, Haul, Dump) mining loader in South America, which began its pilot test in the El Teniente Division. Developed by Epiroc, it can load up to 14 tons of material without generating direct greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.


Crushing and Grinding
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Processing

  • Pyrometallurgical plant / circuit
  • Smelting
  • Crush & Screen plant
  • Flotation
  • Dewatering
  • Filter press

Flow Sheet: Source
Source: Source

Summary:

Concentration
During the concentration process, which takes place in the industrial areas of the Colón and Sewell Divisions, the ore is reduced in size through the use of crushers and mills, where it is converted into a fine powder that is mixed with water and chemical reagents to form a slurry that enters the flotation stage. Here, a foam is produced to which copper and molybdenum particles adhere, separating them from the rest of the sterile material.

Smelting
In the smelter, the concentrate goes to a plant that extracts the humidity and, through a pneumatic transport system, it arrives at the Teniente Converters for the melting process. The main product of these converters is a white metal, which contains 75% copper. This white metal is then poured into the Pierce Smith converters, where the conversion process begins that gives rise to blister copper and from which fire-refined copper or RAF and anodic copper are finally obtained.

Current El Teniente pyrometallurgical process for copper concentrate was commissioned at Caletones Smelter during the period 1988–1991, following an intensive R&D program that led to several improvements to the original process developed during the seventies.

Current process involves four main stages to transform copper sulphide concentrate into blister copper, as follows:
- Wet concentrate drying down to 0.2 wt.% moisture;
- Smelting bone dried concentrate and partial converting to white metal;
- White metal converting to blister copper;
- Slag cleaning directed to recover copper from the slag produced during the smelting and partial converting steps.

The El Teniente converter process involves the smelting and partial converting of bone dried copper concentrate in a thermally autogeneous operation. This operation mode takes into account an improvement to the El Teniente converter original process. The bone dried concentrate is directly injecting to the molten bath, with a mixture of oxygen-enriched air up to 34 vol.% O2 through specially designed tuyeres. Siliceous flux and reverts are fed into the reactor through a garr-gun feeder. The products of smelting and oxidizing of copper concentrate with flux are two separate molten phases, the high grade matte or ‘white metal’ with the degree of oxidation being controlled so as to yield white metal with about 75 wt.% Cu and a slag that contains 7–10 wt.% Cu and 12–16 % Fe3O4. These molten phases are intermittently tapped in a countercurrent flow pattern, white metal at 1220°C and slag at 1240°C, through especially designed water cooled tapholes located at each side of the endplates. White metal is poured into ladles and transferred to the Peirce-Smith Converters, where final blowing to blister copper takes place. Normally three Peirce-Smith Converters are operating while another unit remains on stand-by or under maintenance. Slag produced is transferred by ladles or directly by launder, to the El Teniente slag cleaning furnaces for decoppering.

The El Teniente slag cleaning furnace process is based on an intensive reduction of magnetite and copper content in molten slag produced at the El Teniente converter, by injection of a solid, liquid or gaseous reductant directly in to the molten slag through specially designed tuyeres followed by sedimentation stage. The reduction of magnetite decreases the slag viscosity and enhances the settling of copper enriched phase. The molten products obtained after the settling stage are, a discard slag with a copper content less than 1 wt.% Cu, and a high grade copper matte with 60–70 wt.% Cu. The decoppered slag is poured into ladles, and then transported to dump by potcarriers. The high-grade copper matte is tapped into ladles and then recycled to the Peirce-Smith converters.

Sulphur dioxide and other gases produced inside the El Teniente reactors, continuously exhausted through the offgas mouths, are cooled, dedusted and used for sulphuric acid production.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter201920182017
Copper Head Grade, % 0.950.960.98

Production:

CommodityProductUnits2022202120202019201820172016
Copper Metal t 405,429459,817443,220459,744465,040464,328475,339
Gold Metal kg 473458447746822823945
Silver Metal kg 97,372114,323106,42889,12596,61496,664103,788
Sulphuric acid t 1,125,0071,174,1781,204,1781,050,8831,178,7001,214,9411,191,993
Molybdenum Metal in concentrate t 8,2147,5036,7566,1996,683

Operational Metrics:

Metrics201920182017
Ore tonnes mined 52,006 kdmt52,454 kdmt50,812 kdmt
Daily mining capacity
Annual production capacity

Reserves at December 31, 2022:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 873 Mt Copper 0.96 % 8.4 Mt
Probable 334 Mt Copper 0.45 % 1.5 Mt
Proven & Probable 1,206 Mt Copper 0.82 % 9.9 Mt
Measured 1,488 Mt Copper 0.94 % 13.9 Mt
Indicated 1,189 Mt Copper 0.74 % 8.9 Mt
Inferred 2,684 Mt Copper 0.61 % 16.5 Mt
Total Resource 5,362 Mt Copper 0.73 % 39.3 Mt

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits2019201820172016
C1 cash costs Copper USD 1.01 / lb   1.07 / lb   1.14 / lb   0.97 / lb  

Financials:

Units2022202120202019201820172016
Revenue M USD 3,735  4,708  2,942  2,801   3,035   3,412   2,534  
Gross profit M USD 2,008  2,778  1,289  1,105   1,290   1,348   934.5  
Pre-tax Income M USD 1,351  2,158  653  657   692.3   692   406.3  
After-tax Income M USD 430.7  717.4  201.3  177.6   215.9   234.9   127  



Heavy Mobile Equipment:
HME TypeModelSizeQuantityStatusRef. Date
Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) Sandvik LH514 7 Proposed Apr 3, 2023
Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) Sandvik LH514 8 Existing Apr 3, 2023
Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) Epiroc 14 t 1 Existing Dec 31, 2022
Truck (service) Enaex UG-iTruck® 1 Existing Mar 30, 2023
Truck (underground) Sandvik TH663i 6 Proposed Jan 4, 2022
Truck (underground) Sandvik TH663i 2 Existing Jan 4, 2022

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Mine Manager Rodrigo Andrades Contreras LinkedIn May 20, 2023
Operations Manager Guillermo Cavalli Villanueva LinkedIn May 20, 2023
Project Controls Manager Humberto Torres LinkedIn May 20, 2023
Project Manager Marcelo De Luca Ramirez LinkedIn May 20, 2023
Underground Mining Manager Francisco Carrasco Jerez LinkedIn May 20, 2023

Staff:

EmployeesYear
3,810 2022
3,845 2021
3,869 2020
4,058 2019
4,248 2018
4,535 2017
4,524 2016
4,750 2015
4,921 2014

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Other 2023
Other 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2022
Financial Review 2022
Other 2022
Annual Report 2021
Annual Report 2021
Corporate Presentation 2021
Annual Report 2020
Annual Report 2019
Corporate Presentation 2019
Corporate Presentation 2019
Press Release 2019
Annual Report 2018
Corporate Presentation 2018
Annual Report 2017
Corporate Presentation 2017
Annual Report 2016
Corporate Presentation 2016
Financial Review 2016
Annual Report 2015
Other 2014
Project Description 2014
Project Description 2011
Project Description 2010
Other 2005
Other 2004
Other 2001

Aerial view:

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