Chile's Codelco to Restart Operations in Two More Sections of Collapsed Copper Mine

Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Chile's National Geology and Mining Services (SERNAGEOMIN) and the Office of Labor have approved the partial restart of operations at the Andes Norte and Diamente sections of Codelco's (Santiago, Chile) El Teniente copper mine, following a collapse on July 31 that killed six miners. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Plant Database can click here for the mine profile.

Since August 9, miners have returned to work in most sections of El Teniente. However, the Recursos Norte and Andesita areas, where the accident occurred, remain offline while investigations of the cause of the collapse are conducted.

"At this time, we will not restart operations until the investigations are completed, both by the company's external entities, such as the Review Board, and by the international review that is assisting us. Therefore, the north side of the field will remain restricted, and we will continue operating the southeast side of the field," said Mauricio Barraza, vice-president of operations, on August 20.

On Saturday, the company sent 43,500 tons of mineral to the Colon copper concentrator, while nothing was sent to the Sewell copper mill due to severe weather conditions. Meanwhile, in the mine's smelter), the Teniente 1 Convertor and gas cleaning plant were operating with some limitations, according to the company statement.

As a result of the accident, the company expects to incur a financial impact of US$340 million and a drop in production of 33,000 tons of copper for the year.

El Teniente mine is one of Codelco's largest mines, with an output of 172,000 tons of copper between January and June, about 15.8% more than during the same period in the previous year.

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