Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Copper Gold Silver
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Mirador copper mine is Ecuador’s first large-scale open pit mining operation. The Phase I mining and beneficiation project of the Mirador Copper Mine has completed construction and reached full production, while the Phase II project is under construction. The second phase of the Mirador copper mine in Ecuador is expected to be completed in June 2025. The Ecuadorian State provided subsidized electricity to the project from November 2019 to November 2024. The company was expected to achieve self-sufficiency by constructing the San Cruz hydroelectric project and acquiring emergency generation equipment, but neither was accomplished. From November 4–7, the company briefly operated with one production line. As of January 1, Mirador Copper Mine resumed normal production on both lines. Mine operations data has not been publicly available since then.

Deposit type

• Porphyry

Summary:

The host rock, alteration, and mineralization at the Mirador deposit are characteristic of a calc-alkaline porphyry copper system. Copper deposits of a similar style are widespread in the Cordilleras of North and South America.

Most of the Mirador mineralization is exposed as weathered, leached laterite in the numerous drill trail and road exposures. Unevenly developed zones of supergene copper (and possibly silver) enrichment lie beneath a leached, lateritic “cap” with a relatively flat lower boundary. Thus this leached zone is thickest under ridge crests and nonexistent in any significant drainage bottom. Primary and supergene mineralization are only preserved in creek bottom outcrops, where the drainages have cut down through the overlying laterite.

The copper-gold-silver mineralization of the Mirador deposit is present mostly as disseminations and fine fracture-fillings of chalcopyrite, secondary chalcocite, and pyrite. Gold occurs as fine inclusions in chalcopyrite and pyrite, as well as native. Molybdenite is present in systems of early-stage quartz veins that have a preferred east-west orientation. These veins occur as stockwork in both Zamora granite and early porphyry dikes.

The sequence of mineral deposition at Mirador has been divided into early-stage molybdenum, early-stage copper ± gold, and late-stage copper-gold events, with a final weak polymetallic vein stage.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Commodity	Units	2024	2023
Copper	t	....	....

Operational metrics

Metrics	2024
Annual ore mining rate	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Dec 23, 2024
.......................	.......................		Dec 23, 2024

Employees	Year
......	2024
......	2023
......	2021