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Location: 98 km W from Calama, Chile
Av. Apoquindo 4001 – piso 18SantiagoChile7550162
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The Antucoya porphyry copper deposit is situated 120 km northeast of Antofagasta in the Early Cretaceous metallogenic belt of the Coastal Cordillera. The mineralized system is related to granodioritic porphyry (Antucoya porphyry) and dacite porphyry (Buey Muerto porphyry). Late dacitic dikes intrude the former ore-related intrusions and Jurassic andesitic host rocks in a tectonic environment dominated by splays of the Atacama Fault System. The principal mineralization constitutes a column 350 m thick, composed of atacamite, brochantite, Fe-Cu sulfates, Cubearing limonite, chrysocolla and black oxides, with rare chalcocite and covellite in a thin supergene enrichment blanket.In the underlying hypogene zone, the mineralization is dominated by chalcopyrite>pyrite>bornite hosted by A- and B veins in potassic alteration, and in C-veins on the periphery of the porphyry intrusions. The pyrite/chalcopyrite ratio is greater in D-veins within a shallow phyllic zone. The Mo distribution is erratic and poorly characterized.
Antucoya is a low-grade, low strip-ratio, oxide deposit.Conventional open-pit mining method with preliminary drilling and blasting operations is utilized for extraction oxide ore.There are electric shovels and front-end loaders used for extraction-and-loading.
There are three stages of crushing at the Antucoya processing plant, primary jaw crushing, secondary and tertiary cone crushing.
Mined oxide ore is crushed, piled into heaps and then leached with sulphuric acid, producing a copper sulphate solution. This solution is then put through a solvent extraction and electrowinning (“SX-EW”) plant to produce copper cathodes, which are sold to fabricators around the world.
Antucoya has processes in place to manage and conserve freshwater.Antucoya uses seawater in both mining and electrowinning plant. It also has reverse osmosis plant to produce drinking water for the camp. All the water used in camps and offices is collected for treatment in the wastewater treatment plant and is used to moisten our internal roads and the open pit loading area. Antofagasta already only uses sea water for Antucoya operation. By 2025, Antofagasta expects 90% of mining operations’ water consumption will be recirculated or sea water.The shared pipeline between Antucoya and Centinela is a major synergy.
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