Anglo American has delivered the first copper production from its Los Bronces expansion project in central Chile.
Los Bronces is an open-cut copper and molybdenum mine located about 65km north-east of Santiago, Chile.
The expansion of the project is expected to more than double the mine’s existing production of 221,000t a year.
The Los Bronces expansion project involved installation of new primary crusher near the Los Bronces open pit, with crushed ore being fed by conveyer through a 4.4km tunnel to the grinding plant at Confluencia.
A new stockpile was also installed, as well as a grinding building, thickeners and other associated equipment to produce the slurry.
Anglo American is planning to increase the processing plant throughput from 61,000t to 148,000t of ore a day during the 12-month ramp-up period.