Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Copper
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The El Soldado pit is a hillside type, very different from the amphitheater-shaped ones commonly known. In January 2019, El Soldado launched the Bulk Sorting plant, an innovation project that makes the mining process more efficient, by detecting the composition of the mineral and separating it according to the copper grade, in order to reduce the entry of sterile material to the plant and thus reduce water and energy consumption in the process. Environmental permits providing authorisation for the Phase 5 operation, including bulk ore sorting have been approved in August 2023.

Deposit type

• Manto
• Hydrothermal

Summary:

El Soldado, located in Central Chile 120 km northwest of Santiago, is the largest (>200 Mt @ 1.4 % Cu) of the known copper manto-type deposits in central Chile.

El Soldado is a copper manto-type deposit that is regionally strata-bound within volcanic rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Lo Prado Formation. Locally, the mineralisation is discordant with the strata and controlled by trachytic (rhyodacite) feeders, trachytic flows and fault intersections. The orebodies are irregular in shape and size, and show an outer pyrite-rich halo, followed inwards by chalcopyritic zones and a bornite-chalcocite core. The mineralisation is mainly primary and is discordant with the host strata.

Although structurally controlled and discordant at the scale of the mine, it is regionally strata-bound within shallow marine, bimodal calc-alkaline basalt - rhyodacite (extrusive- intrusive) rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Lo Prado Formation, which also contains marine carbonaceous shale and volcaniclastic sandstones. It is generally acknowledged that hydrothermal sulphide base metal deposits in the Andes obtained their metals and sulfur from calc-alkaline magmatic systems.

Several structurally-controlled orebody clusters occur within an area of ca. 2000 x 800 m, 600 m vertical, in a dilational fault jog within a large NS orogen parallel (sinistral) strikeslip shear fault system that was active in the Cretaceous. The orebodies are zoned with pyrite in outer halos or envelopes, followed inwards by zones with abundant pyrite-chalcopyrite, chalcopyrite-bornite and a bornite-chalcocite core with minor hematite in the higher levels and the chalcocite cores; pyrite is relatively more abundant at depth and in the northern half of the deposit.

Samples of massive pyrite and associated chalcopyrite and bornite, devoid of visible bitumen, were selected from the Valdivia Sur, Arauco Norte, Catedral and Morro orebody clusters, most from the pyrite-chalcopyrite halos such as those shown in, or veins. Under close inspection under the reflected microscope and the microprobe, even the most massive pyrite assemblages show remnants of colloidal or framboidal textures. As temperature rose, framboidal structures recrystallized as cubes, yet (at high magnification) their cores preserve the diagenetic framboidal structures. Partial or total replacement of pyrite by chalcopyrite and bornite did not totally destroy the original diagenetic textures.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Commodity	Product	Units	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Copper	Metal in concentrate	t	....	....	....	....	....	54,200	52,700	40,500	47,000	35,800

Operational metrics

Metrics	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Ore tonnes mined	....	....	....	....	12,128,100 t	11,613,200 t	5,338,400 t	7,339,100 t	5,208,100 t
Tonnes processed	....	....	....	....	7,438,500 t	7,598,200 t	7,395,100 t	6,964,400 t	5,965,400 t
Daily processing capacity	....	....	....	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Mar 19, 2024
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.......................	.......................		Mar 20, 2024
.......................	.......................		Mar 19, 2024
.......................	.......................		Mar 19, 2024

Total Workforce	Year
......	2021
......	2019
......	2017