Codelco's Rajo Inca Chilean Copper Mine Project to Start Operations This Year

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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Codelco President Maximo Pacheco said this week that the company's Rajo Inca copper mine project in Chile will start operations in the first half of the year. He made the announcement during a field visit to the mine with other top officials from the state miner.

The Rajo Inca project will extend the Salvador mine's life for 47 years and increase its production capacity by 40%, with a possible total output of 90,000 metric tons of copper per year, based on the company's previous production volumes. In 2022, the Salvador division produced only 32,000 metric tons of copper, one of the lowest outputs in recent times.

The project has a capital expenditure of US$2.4 billion, and by the end of 2023, it was at 70% of its completion. Rajo Inca will add an open-pit mine with a pre-stripping of 130 million tons of rocks, the expansion of the concentration plant, and a boost in the capacity of the three crushing lines to 37,000 tons per day. The crushing plant will start processing some 10,000 tons per day until reaching its maximum capacity, while the concentration plant is expected to begin processing materials from the new mine in the second half of the year.

"We have reviewed the status of development and progress of the project, the risks we have faced in its execution, and the lessons learned. We need this Salvador to be successful with Rajo Inca, a complex initiative full of challenges, which has presented difficulties, but we have been overcoming them thanks to the courage of its workers," said Pacheco.

Rajo Inca is one of the projects launched by Codelco to maintain and increase the company's copper production, although they have faced delays, impacting the Chilean miner's performance. For example, Rajo Inca's construction was halted in 2022 following the death of a worker, while operational difficulties and the pandemic also impacted these projects.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Project and Plant databases can click here for reports related to the Rajo Inca project and click here for the plant profile.

The delays have taken a toll on Codelco's copper production. In 2023, the company set one of the lowest production guidances in recent years, between 1.31 million tons and 1.35 million tons. According to a company presentation from last year, Codelco is expected to reach its previous output of 1.7 million tons of copper by 2030 with the completion of its structural projects, such as Rajo Inca.

In January, Codelco raised US$2 billion in bonds to invest in its structural projects.

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