{"id":1192449,"date":"2020-06-26T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1028100"},"modified":"2020-06-26T05:45:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T10:45:00","slug":"codelco-shuts-chuquicamata-smelter-and-refinery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1192449","title":{"rendered":"Codelco shuts Chuquicamata smelter and refinery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chile\u2019s Codelco, the world\u2019s No. 1 copper producer, has closed its Chuquicamata smelter and refinery<\/a> to prevent a further spread of covid-19 among its staff, following the death of a third worker<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

The move makes of Chuquicamata the first major copper asset to close due to the sharp spike of coronavirus cases in Chile in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n

The news came on the heels of the country\u2019s environmental regulator filing pollution charges<\/a> against the miner over a 2016 tailings spill.<\/p>\n

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Chuquicamata smelter is the company’s, and one of the world\u2019s, largest of its kind.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The century-old copper mine is Codelco’s second largest, after El Teniente. Last year, it churned out just over a quarter of the company\u2019s total production.<\/p>\n

The Chuquicamata smelter is the state-owned miner’s, and one of the world\u2019s, largest of its kind.<\/p>\n

Codelco said the measure was \u201ctransitory\u201d in nature and would be \u201cgradually\u201d implemented. The company estimates around 400 people will stop working at the smelter and refinery.<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s Rivera, General Manager of the division, said that halting processing operations at Chuquicamata would allow the company to focus on the more critical productive areas.<\/p>\n

Copper output levels have held up so far in Chile, but the more than 1,000 covid-19 cases in the country\u2019s mining industry indicates that risks of further restrictions are very likely, said Colin Hamilton, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.<\/p>\n

Plans at risk<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite the pandemic, Codelco has plowed ahead with an ambitious 10-year, $40 billion mines overhaul to keep up production rates.<\/p>\n

It has already finished one of its biggest projects \u2014 the $5.6 billion conversion<\/a> of the Chuquicamata open pit mine into an underground operation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ongoing major mine upgrades include a $5.5 billion new level at the El Teniente underground mine, the company\u2019s largest and the world\u2019s no. 6 by reserve size, slated to begin operations in 2023.<\/p>\n

It also involves converting the El Salvador mine to an open-pit mine from underground operations. The $1 billion project, known as Rajo Inca<\/a>, is expected to extend the productive life the mine by 40 years and increase output by 30% from current levels.<\/p>\n

Salvador is Codelco\u2019s smallest division by production. Last year, it churned out 50,600 million tonnes of copper, down 16.8% from 2018.<\/p>\n

In the copper giant\u2019s pipeline of so-called structural projects there is also the $1.3 billion expansion of the Andina mine. The operation accounted for roughly 11% of Codelco\u2019s output in 2018.<\/p>\n

Codelco operates seven mines and four smelters, all in Chile. Its assets account 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Move makes of Chuquicamata the first major copper asset to close due to the sharp spike of coronavirus cases in Chile.<\/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":[369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192449"}],"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=1192449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192521,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192449\/revisions\/1192521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1192449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1192449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1192449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}