Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Copper Gold Silver
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Ecuador’s first large-scale open pit mining operation Mirador copper mine, in which Chinese copper smelter Tongling Non-ferrous owns a 70% stake, has been commissioned as of July 18, 2019. The Phase II of the project is expected to process 46.2 million tons of ore annually, with a processing capacity of 20 million tons for beneficiation. After reaching the production capacity, the annual production of copper concentrate is expected to reach 800,000 tons, equivalent to “rebuilding” a Mirador Copper Mine in terms of scale. 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

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Jan 29, 2024
.......................	.......................		Jan 29, 2024

Total Workforce	Year
......	2021