Anglo American delivers first copper production from Chilean project

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.