{"id":1161759,"date":"2020-01-24T07:57:44","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T13:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1012115"},"modified":"2020-01-24T07:57:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T13:57:44","slug":"codelco-kicks-off-production-at-el-teniente-expansion-ahead-of-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1161759","title":{"rendered":"Codelco kicks off production at El Teniente expansion ahead of schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chile\u2019s state-owned Codelco, the world\u2019s no.1 copper producer, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codelco.com\/proyecto-recursos-norte-de-el-teniente-inicio-oficialmente-su-etapa\/prontus_codelco\/2020-01-23\/113343.html\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">kicked off commercial production<\/a> from the $759 million phase one expansion project at El Teniente mine, 15 months ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With ore reserves estimated at 157<br \/>\nmillion tonnes and a copper&nbsp;grade of 0.75%, the new section \u2014 called Recursos<br \/>\nNorte \u2014 is expected to contribute about 20% of the ore fed daily to El Teniente<br \/>\nprocessing facilities.<\/p>\n<p>The next steps toward extending the<br \/>\nlife of the mine will be the Diamante and Andesita projects, both of which are<br \/>\nalready under construction, and the future Andes Norte project.<\/p>\n<p>Once the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/chiles-codelco-boost-production-el-teniente-copper-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">full expansion is completed<\/a>, which is set to happen by 2023, El Teniente mine\u2019s production is estimated to reach 500,000 tonnes of copper a year, positioning it among the world\u2019s five largest copper operations.<\/p>\n<p>Codelco has also begun building a new<br \/>\n3.5 km access tunnel, which will cost the company $49 million. Once<br \/>\noperational, slated for 2022, it will be the main access to the mine and key to<br \/>\nEl Teniente\u2019s future centralized maintenance.<\/p>\n<p>The overall $3.4 billion-expansion project, which is expected to extend its productive life by 50 years, , is part of an ambitious,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/codelco-goes-ahead-scaled-back-underground-extension-chuquicamata\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">10-year, $39 billion investment drive<\/a>\u00a0at Codelco to open new projects and overhaul older mines.<\/p>\n<p>El Teniente, located 80km south of Santiago in the Andes mountain range in Chile, already is the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/worlds-largest-underground-mine-looks-like-38052\/\" >world\u2019s biggest underground copper mine<\/a>\u00a0and the sixth largest by reserve size.  <\/p>\n<p>Codelco holds vast copper deposits, accounting for 10% of the world\u2019s known proven and probable reserves and about 11% of the global annual copper output with 1.8 million tonnes of production. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/recursos-norte-project.jpg\" alt=\"Codelco kicks off production at El Teniente expansion ahead of schedule\" class=\"wp-image-1012117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/recursos-norte-project.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/recursos-norte-project-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/recursos-norte-project-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><figcaption>Recursos Norte is expected to contribute about 20% of the ore fed daily to El Teniente processing facilities. (<em>Image courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/codelco\/49429341643\/in\/album-72157712801689213\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Codelco | Flickr.<\/a><\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phase one was completed 15 months ahead of schedule and for $50 million less than originally expected.<\/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 center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[539,369,4,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161759"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161785,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161759\/revisions\/1161785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}