Antamina Copper Mine

 mine, copper mine, silver mine

 Upload a photo

In 1860, Italian explorer Antonio Raimondi reached the upper Ancash region on one of his journeys to Peru. He was told there was a mining camp and a small smelter in the Juprog region that used lead from Yanacancha and copper from Antamina.
Xstrata Copper > Operations
Antamina Mine










Fast Facts Location Peru, South America
Products Copper and Zinc
Employees Employs approximately 5,300 people including contractors
2011 production 333,700 tonnes of copper in concentrate

235,400 tonnes of zinc in concentrate

Website www.antamina.com/



The world's third largest zinc and eighth largest copper mine, Antamina, is located in the Andes Mountains in northern Peru, approximately 270 kilometres northeast of Lima, at an elevation of 4,300 metres. It is operated by a joint venture company, Compañía Minera Antamina S.A. The joint venture partners are Xstrata (33.75%), BHP Billiton (33.75%), Teck-Cominco Limited (22.5%) and Mitsubishi Corporation (10%). Xstrata acquired the partnership through its acquisition of Falconbridge in August 2006. Xstrata Copper and Xstrata Zinc are represented on the Board and Advisory Committee of the company.

Reserves are extracted by open pit mining followed by conventional grinding and flotation to produce concentrates. The concentrates are slurried and transported by a 300 kilometre pipeline to the Pacific coast, where they are filtered for shipment.

The Antamina deposit hosts total estimated Mineral Resources of 1.5 billion tonnes at an average grade of 0.84% copper. In March 2011, Antamina announced an 18% increase in its Mineral Reserves to 822 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.93% copper.

A US$1.3 billion expansion to increase ore processing capacity at the mine site by 38% to 130,000 tonnes per day began commisioning in December 2011 and it was completed in the first quarter of 2012.

Antamina began commercial production in October 2001 following two years of exploration and three years of construction at a capital cost of $2.3 billion, the most significant investment in Peruvian mining history.







The Antamina Mine is located in the Antamina canyon in the district of San Marcos, province of Huari, in the Ancash region. It lies between 4,200 and 4,700 meters above sea level at latitude 9º32,S – longitude 77º03,W.

It is a polymetallic reserve, with a copper grade equivalent to 1.7 percent and an estimated 559 million tons of reserves.

It is accessed through a paved road, six hours from Lima and three and half hours from Huaraz.

The area is characterized by high ridges and plains marked by occasional valleys and canyons. Peru’s Northern Andes include the so-called western and eastern ridges, separated by the Marañon River. Antamina is located east of the Western Ridge. The Western Ridge has two main mountain chains, the White Ridge and the Black Ridge, separated by the Santa River. The mine lies east of the White Ridge, in the Conchucos Valley.

The Antamina mine is a large copper and zinc mine, located in the Andes mountain range, 270 kilometres north of Lima, Peru. The deposit is located at an average elevation of 4,200 metres. Mine personnel live in a camp facility while at work and commute from both local communities and larger population centres, including Lima.

The Antamina mine, located in the Andes mountain
range, 270 kilometers north of Lima, Peru, is one of the
largest zinc/copper mines in the world. Teck Cominco
has a 22.5% interest and is partnered with BHP Billiton
(33.75%), Xstrata (33.75%) and Mitsubishi Corporation
(10%). Antamina currently employs 1,460 workers, over
98% of whom are Peruvian.

Teck has a 22.5 % interest in the mine. Partners are BHP Billiton (33.75%), Xstrata plc (33.75%) and Mitsubishi Corporation (10%).

The mine is an open pit, truck/shovel operation. The ore is crushed at the rim of the pit and conveyed through a 2.7 kilometre tunnel to a coarse ore stockpile at the mill. It is then processed utilizing a SAG mill, followed by ball mill grinding and flotation to produce separate copper, zinc, molybdenum and lead/bismuth concentrates. A 302 kilometre-long slurry concentrate pipeline transports copper and zinc concentrates to the port for shipment to smelters and refineries world-wide.

Antamina has entered into long-term copper and zinc concentrate off-take agreements with major smelting and refining companies which cover the majority of the mine’s production of copper and zinc concentrates.

Operations

Antamina obtains its mineral resources from the subsoil; these are processed at the Concentrator plant and then transported by a 302 km underground pipeline, called an ore pipeline to our port in Huarmey. Finally, they are loaded onto ships for export.

The minerals in the mine deposit are not visible at first. One of the biggest challenges has been to remove part of the original geography and drain a lake to expose the mineralized deposit material. At that site today, one great open pit mine has emerged.

First 110 million tons of waste rock material were removed, rock without mineral content, a small amount of which was used in the construction of the operation’s tailings dam.
In addition to requiring highly qualified human resources, both the initial construction and the current operations demand:

Large scale volume equipment

• Five BE 49R mine electric drills with 12 1 / 4 inch diameter drills.
• Five diesel drill rigs. Two IR DMM2 9 and 7 / 8 inches, one 5 inch TI600 and two 4 ½ inch diameter IR ECM690 respectively.
• Four electric shovels: Bucyrus BE 495B 56 yd3
• Four front loaders: CAT 994D / F, 27 yd3 bucket capacity, used to supplement the availability of loading equipment.
• A fleet of 54 trucks CAT 793C / D with 240 tons of carrying capacity for hauling material.

Auxiliary equipment

• Five CAT motor graders, three 16 H and two 24H.
• Four CAT tractors on wheels, two 834B and two 854G
• Two CAT D11R crawler tractors.
• Eight CAT D10R tractors.
• Two D8R tractors
• One D6R tractor D6R.
• Two water tank for irrigation, 20,000 gallons each CAT 777D.
• One CAT 777D platform trailer for moving diesel equipment.
• One Volvo FM 400 semi trailer with mobile generator moving electrical equipment.

Expansion Program

In November 2008, the company announced an increase of 77% of its mineral reserves, which were subjected to a feasibility study – completed in 2009- that enabled the company to evaluate options for expansion. After receiving approval from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, on January 5th, 2010, the company officially announced it was investing US$ 1.288 billion to expand our mining facilities and ore processing capacity. This is how Antamina’s Expansion Program officially got under way.

Antamina grows, Peru benefits

The Expansion Program will increase the ore processing index by 38%, rising from an average of 94 thousand to 130 thousand metric tons per day. Copper and zinc represent 86% of total revenues. Production of molybdenum, silver and lead will also increase.

Antamina’s Expansion Program and the 77% increase in reserves will extend the useful life of the mine from the year 2023 to 2029. This extension adds significant value to our operation and represents a rewarding achievement for the company which has been improving the efficiency of its operations through a series of initiatives over the last few years.

Expansion Program operations will start in the final quarter of 2011 when the new SAG mill begins operating and will continue until November 2013 when the final construction work is completed to elevate the Tailings Dam. It is expected that the expanded processing production rate will reach full capacity during the first quarter of 2012.

The Program is located within the company’s property and includes a new 55 kilometer long electric power line that extends from the Vizcarra substation to the mine. The approval to build this power transmission line required an Environmental Impact Study which was approved in September 2009.

Modifications in the Concentrator Plant
There will be a new stockpile and a new stationary lifter. There will also be a new conveyor for the new 36,000 ton live load pile. Ore recovery has three new feeders and two conveyors to feed the new SAG mill.

The new stockpile on the opposite side from the existing piles will be built using a cut and fill method, which will allow for earth movement and for structures and equipment to be installed without interfering with operations.

A new SAG mill, identical in size as the current one (38' by 21') will provide:

1. Grinding power of a minimum of 130,000 MTPD
2. Reduced continuous production risk associated with using a single operating line.

A new steel ball grinder, identical to the three already in use (24' by 35,5"), will provide the necessary grinding power to ensure satisfactory mineral flotation in line with the new treatment capacity levels.

A fourth cell bank containing eight copper cells will be installed; in addition in each of the three existing banks an eight cell will be added. Eight zinc rougher cells of the same size (130m3 each) will be installed. The cells will be placed in the expansion wing of the existing building and kept isolated from operations during construction.

Modifications in Puerto Punta Lobitos
The Expansion Program includes the installation of a new deep cone thickener (19 m. in diameter by 10 m. high) for copper concentrates, fed from the storage tanks; this will raise the percentage of solids in the concentrates from 65% to a maximum of 76%, thereby increasing the capacity of existing filtering facilities.

Reinforcement of the Power System
Supplying the Expansion Program’s new power demand level of 145MW requires that the electric power supply to Yanacancha be expanded and reinforced. A new 220 KV electric power transmission line that is approximately 55 km long will be built from the Vizcarra substation to Antamina. The Vizcarra substation will be expanded with the installation of 220 KV of output to connect the new line to Peru’s electric power grid network. In addition, the Antamina substation will also be expanded.

Modifications in the Truck Shop
The truck ship will be expanded by five bays to service 300 MT vehicles (including one bay to be used in preventive maintenance). It will also have:

• 4 bays for auxiliary equipment
• 2 bays for truck washing
• 1 bay for cleaning auxiliary equipment
• 2 bays for tire changes
• Expansion of the welding shop, workshops and warehouses, dining room and lounge area, offices etc.


A new fleet of Mobile Mining Equipment
The expansion will require the purchase of the following equipment:

EQUIPMENT BRAND AND MODEL NUMBER OF UNITS
Mining Shovel P & H 4100XPC 3
Wheel Loader Le Tourneau L2350 3
Wheel Dozer CAT 854K 3
Electric Drill Rig BUCYRUS 49HR 5
Off Highway Mining Truck
CAT 793F 64
Track-type tractor CAT D11T 6
Mining Moto grader CAT 24M 4
Excavator CAT 385CL 3
Explosion – proof truck VOLVO VM42R 1
Surface Crawler drill rig ATLAS COPCO ROCL830 3
Off-highway truck CAT 785D 3

Reference for information:
www.antamina.com/en/content.php?342/operations/operatio...

www.bhpbilliton.com/home/investors/reports/Documents/20...