Collahuasi just lately reported its monetary outcomes for the 12 months ending December 31, 2024. At year-end, the corporate recorded effective copper manufacturing of 558,611 t, barely decrease than in 2023 however according to the projected mining plan for the 12 months.
Contemplating this, mixed with a median copper value of US$4.15/lb throughout 2024, 8% larger than the earlier 12 months, Collahuasi generated US$4,818.7 million in income from the sale of focus, together with byproducts. Operational productiveness reached 112.4 t of effective copper per employee per 12 months, according to finances.
Moreover, a document 60 Mt/12 months processing plant was achieved because of the contribution of a fifth ball mill, which partially mitigated the results of decrease water availability and materials high quality. Although within the midst of an especially dry 12 months, the mine achieved a really excessive degree of water use effectivity with a make-up of 0.44 m3/t.
The fifth ball mill funding has made it doable to extend plant capability to 170,000 t/d within the preliminary part, with a subsequent deliberate growth to 210,000 t/d. Asset administration has allowed the mine to take care of world-class working uptime ranges, reaching 95% on the three SABC grinding traces.
For the reason that fifth mill challenge has elevated the mill’s grinding capability, it was essential to additionally optimise upstream processes, particularly the ore conveying and crushing system. To this finish, a digital twin of this method was developed with Siemens to higher perceive its variability and anticipate deviations.
The fifth ball mill challenge varieties a part of the mine’s Ujina Development Venture – a program of particular person and sequential tasks to organically improve the remedy capability of the Ujina concentrator to the environmentally authorized most of 210,000 t/d, with potential for additional will increase. It features a new electrical room, six new Metso rougher flotation cells, a unit substation, and PG1 management system.
In 2024, Collahuasi’s C20+ challenge – which covers the event of its future desalination plant, electrical system, and pumping system – reached 86.6% general completion, with plans to start operations through the first half of 2026. The challenge will allow the transport of 1,050 litres per second of water by means of a 194 km pipeline, from Puerto Collahuasi to the mining web site. Venture collaboration companions embody Techint, TecnoFast, and Acciona.
Collahuasi can also be urgent forward with different key know-how tasks, which embody its automation program and trolley help pilot, for which particulars on each had been included earlier in its 2023 Sustainability Report, launched in August 2024.
With regard to the autonomy challenge, with this initiative, Collahuasi mentioned it seeks to validate the potential worth of the secure and productive use of autonomous truck know-how in a real-world working setting at Collahuasi. It’s working intently with Komatsu on a joint working mannequin within the management room utilizing the FrontRunner AHS, with the purpose of finally working the fleet for waste transport. The report cited that six autonomous vans had been being utilized in pilot testing, plus help gear enabled to function below these circumstances. These are transformed 320 ton class Komatsu 930E-4SE vans. Anticipated advantages included security enhancements by decreasing the variety of incidents, effectivity and price enhancements by reaching a discount in value per tonne; and capturing operational learnings to realize operational continuity. IM understands that seven autonomous take a look at vans at the moment are operating efficiently.
The trolley challenge is geared toward assessing the potential of the know-how to scale back Collahuasi’s emissions – the report estimates that 73% of the mine’s carbon emissions are from the haul truck fleet. The corporate estimates that trolley through discount in diesel gas consumption has the potential to carry a 52% discount in carbon emissions on the mine (14.5 million t of CO2 discount) through 22 km of trolley traces. Increased speeds on trolley can also be estimated to carry an 18% discount in cycle time, so fewer vans for materials moved. Additionally it is anticipated to carry decrease working and upkeep prices by means of much less asset put on.
For this challenge, Collahuasi is working with Liebherr on a pilot challenge involving a 1 km trolley take a look at line within the Rosario open pit utilising 4 Liebherr 400 ton class T284 vans to judge its efficiency and future scalability. This pilot challenge is ongoing and is being carried out by a multidisciplinary staff from Collahuasi and is ruled by the operation’s danger administration cycle and enabled through a SERNAGEOMIN allow.
