Overview
| Stage | Production |
| Mine Type | Open Pit |
| Commodities |
|
| Mining Method |
|
| Production Start | ...  |
| Mine Life | 2037 |
During the second quarter of 2022, Capstone Copper Corp. (“Capstone”) continued the ramp up of the Mantos Blancos expansion from 4.2 Mt per year to 7.3 Mt per year. The focus remains on optimization and achieving targets for sustained throughput and recoveries in Q3 2022.
On May 12th, Capstone confirmed the ongoing analysis of a potential further increase of throughput at the Mantos Blancos sulphide concentrator plant from 7.3 Mt per year to 10.0 Mt per year using the existing (currently unused/underutilized) ball mills and process equipment.
The Mantos Blancos Phase II feasibility study is expected to be released in H2 2023, and the environmental DIA application was submitted in August 2022. |
Source:
p. 1
The Mantos Blancos property is owned 99.993% by Mantos Copper Holding SpA, a Chilean company.
On March 23, 2022 Capstone Mining Corp. announced the successful completion of the previously announced transaction combining Capstone Mining and Mantos Copper (Bermuda) Limited, following the receipt of all regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of all closing conditions. Concurrent with the closing of the Transaction, Mantos has been renamed Capstone Copper Corp., is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. and represents an Americasfocused premier copper producer with transformational and peer-leading production growth.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Stratabound
- Volcanic hosted
Summary:
Mantos Blancos is a copper stratabound deposit with subordinate content of silver mineralization hosted by Jurassic volcanic sequences. Mantos Blancos has the typical rock, mineralization, alteration and structural setting of the Jurassic deposits, in spite of its bigger size in comparison with other Chilean stratabound copper deposits. The area has been the subject of geological studies and interpretation since 1917 and the deposit geology has been extensively studied by Ramirez (2006) and Maksaev (2002).
Mantos Blancos is associated with the La Negra Formation. A volcanic arc is recognized in the La Negra Formation in the Coastal Range of northern Chile. This formation comprises mainly thin flows of calc-alkaline basalts, basaltic andesites and high-K basaltic andesites, as well as some volcaniclastic intercalations with a total thickness of 7 km to 10 km. The beginning of the volcanism of the La Negra Formation has been determined to be of Lower Jurassic age. A comparable volcanic belt is also recognized in the Lower Cretaceous in several areas of northern Chile.
The deposit is mainly characterized by pyroclastic and intrusive host rock units. The pyroclastic and intrusive units are from the Permo-Triassic and Early Jurassic age. Andesite belonging to the La Negra Formation (Middle-Late Jurassic), tonalite, granodiorite, aplite and dacite porphyry belonging to the El Ancla and Alibaud plutons of Middle to Late Jurassic age also outcrop along the depos ........
Summary:
The open pit operation includes one large open pit (Santa Barbara) which provides most of the sulphides for the concentrator and oxides for dump leaching.
Other sources of material are:
• Flotation: Sulphide stockpile (Cancha 90);
• Dump leach process: Oxide stockpile (Mercedes Stockpile).
Variable slope angles were used for the detail mine design, with inter-ramp slope values varying between 50° and 59°. A slope angle of 36° (natural slope angle for broken materials) is used on areas with existing underground stopes and for waste dumps.
The pit design was developed considering the following:
• Minimum expansions width: 30 m for front end loaders;
• Minimum road width: 30 m;
• Maximum gradient on ramps: 10%;
• Operating bench height: 12 m (24 m in final pit walls with pre-split blasting).
The selected final pit was divided into operational phases, resulting in a total of eight phases to define the LOM 2020.
Mine movements considered historical KPIs for loaders, operational ramps and maximum quantity of equipment for each phase. The production plan was developed considering a maximum mining rate of 66 Mt per year and the operation of 4 to 5 phases simultaneously.
The resulting plan considers a total mining rate (mineral and waste) which decreases from approximately 66 Mt in 2022 to 60.0 Mt in 2025, staying at this level up to 2030 when production starts to decrease through to 2037.
Source:
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Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Reserves at December 31, 2020:
Mineral Resources cut-off grades:
• Dump Leach: 0.10% Cu
• Flotation: 0.22% Cu
| Category | OreType | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
|
Proven & Probable
|
Sulphide & Mixed
|
122,600 kt
|
Copper
|
0.69 %
|
854 kt
|
|
Proven & Probable
|
Oxide & Mixed
|
11,300 kt
|
Copper
|
0.24 %
|
27 kt
|
|
Proven & Probable
|
Sulphide & Mixed
|
122,600 kt
|
Silver
|
6 g/t
|
22,307 koz
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
Sulphide & Mixed
|
210,900 kt
|
Copper
|
0.66 %
|
1,400 kt
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
Oxide & Mixed
|
61,600 kt
|
Copper
|
0.28 %
|
171 kt
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
Sulphide & Mixed
|
210,900 kt
|
Silver
|
5 g/t
|
35,334 koz
|
|
Inferred
|
Sulphide & Mixed
|
20,000 kt
|
Copper
|
0.48 %
|
96 kt
|
|
Inferred
|
Oxide & Mixed
|
18,400 kt
|
Copper
|
0.21 %
|
38 kt
|
|
Inferred
|
Sulphide & Mixed
|
20,000 kt
|
Silver
|
3 g/t
|
2,151 koz
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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