Chile\u2019s Codelco, the world\u2019s No. 1 copper producer, plans to kick off underground operations at its century-old Chquicamata mine by mid-year, chairman Juan Benavides\u00a0said Wednesday<\/p>\n
The\u00a0$4.9 billion-switch<\/a>, part of Codelco\u2019s 10-year, $39 billion- overhaul of its core mines, is expected to extend the mine\u2019s life by at least 40 years. This will allow the copper giant keep production rates, despite falling ore grades and increasing costs at its assets.<\/p>\n The announcement comes as the Chilean government handed the state miner the remaining $400 million of the $1 billion “extraordinary” capitalization<\/a>\u00a0it promised Codelco last year.<\/p>\n “This is a show of the confidence we have in the company and in the importance of these resources for Codelco to be able to complete its structural reform program,” said Finance Minister Felipe Larra\u00edn, according to EFE<\/em> news agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n Codelco, which hands over all of its profits to the state, holds vast copper deposits, accounting for 10% of the world’s known proven and probable reserves and about 11% of the global annual copper output with 1.8 million metric tonnes of production.<\/p>\n \u201cChuqui\u201d \u2014 as locals call it \u2014 produced and close by Radomiro Tomic mines produced 653,000 tonnes of the company’s total 1.8 million tonnes of output last year.<\/p>\n Annual production from the mine after the full transition from surface to underground extraction is projected to be 320,000 tonnes of fine copper and 15,000 tonnes of molybdenum.<\/p>\n The post Codelco to kick off Chuquicamata underground by mid-year<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Codelco’s second largest copper operation by size is expected to fully transition to underground block cave mining this year.<\/p>\n The post Codelco to kick off Chuquicamata underground by mid-year<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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billion-switch to underground from open pit is expected to extend Chuquicamata\u2019s life by at least 40 years.<\/q><\/p>\n