20% of the production of the large copper mines will close or will be reconverted to 2025
Mining Companies are provided an investment portfolio to ensure that the majority of this production, which exceeds one million tons of copper per year, do not miss.
In the current scenario, where the pits are larger, laws are falling and without a technological innovation that helps; extract mineral longer profitable. While sometimes mining companies close or are reconverted, but they cannot stay the same.
“It is a normal and dynamic process in mining,” say from a copper mining company with one of these piggyback conversion processes.
But while most of these processes are planned, all agree that today is not the best time to start them, and that the continuity of those sites that could do that is harder than a couple of years.
Even, according to figures from the Mining Council, in 2020 43% of global mineral will have better law than Chile.
But how much of the national copper production would soon pass through this process?
Chile is a country of mining tradition, in which the mines have their history and are being exploited for several years, which can be noted that while on the one hand the country reached a production of 5.8 million tons of copper in 2013, 20% of that number, 1.2 million tons, comes from sites that in the next 10 years should face a mine closure or conversion. They are at least seven sites in the copper mining which added further just under 40 thousand workers, including domestic and contractors. According to the INE, employees nationwide sector do not exceed 240 thousand.
Operational continuity
All this would impact even more if it adds to the decline in investments planned by the industry, for delays or cancellations, which would weaken Chile’s future position on the world stage.
The most emblematic of the list is Codelco. The company is focused for several years on their structural plans which they say in the business, will be allowed to continue its operations and not lose its production capacity in the future. With them, the state mining company would add 1.2 million tons of fine copper per year by 2025.
Without them, in the next four years the company will start the process of closing three of its sites: open pit mine Chuquicamata (2021) open pit mine and underground mine El Salvador (2018), and Oxides Radomiro Tomic mine pit (2019). This represents 45% of Codelco’s copper production, about 50% of its surplus and provide direct employment to 21,000 people.
However, all these projects are dependent on the mining resources the mining company receive from the state. Cerro Colorado, from BHP Billiton is in the process of applying for business continuity, although several authorities can see it with little chance, after a series of negative reports on this process.
The producer of oxide cathodes Mantoverde, from Anglo American, would closed in 2018, as well as Carmen de Andacollo (from Teck), in 2015.
Candelaria, belonging to Freeport and Sumitomo, would do the same in 2017, while Michilla, from AMSA would have until next year.
Source: El Mercurio
