Antofagasta Minerals making steady progress on US$4.4bn Centinela copper project

With blasting at the site where Minera Centinela's second concentrator plant will be located, Chile’s Antofagasta Minerals (AMSA) achieved a milestone in its US$4.4bn project that will add 144,000t/y copper production from 2027.

The blasting in the Sierra Gorda district of Antofagasta region was carried out to prepare the land and install the support infrastructure for the concentrator that will have capacity of 95,000t/d.

The project is expected to produce 170,000t/y of copper equivalent, including 130,000oz/y of gold and 3,500t/y of molybdenum during the first 10 years and ensure operational continuity at Centinela for at least 30 years.

AMSA will prioritize efficient technologies such as a high-pressure grinding roller (HPGR) system that will optimize the grinding process and build an overland conveyor belt of more than 6km to transport the ore from the crushing area to the plant, it said in a statement on Monday.

The engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the concentrator is being carried out by a consortium made up of Salfa and Fluor.

AMSA has also carried out the first movements of material in the area where a second thickened tailings deposit will be installed that will house the waste from two new pits, Esperanza Sur and Encuentro, where the use of autonomous trucks will be prioritized.

“At the beginning of June, the assembly of two Komatsu 980 E-5 extraction trucks was completed, the first of 11 units that the operation considers,” AMSA said, highlighting that after more than one year, the project is over 14% complete.

WATER AND ENERGY

Centinela will continue to be supplied with undesalinated seawater from a plant with capacity of 1,500l/s. At the beginning of June, AMSA sealed a US$600mn agreement with a consortium comprising Transelec and Alma Water Solutions to expand and operate the water pipeline.

With a focus on guaranteeing emission-free energy consumption, AMSA has a deal with electric power company Colbún to provide 912GWh annually for 15 years starting in 2025. It also has an agreement with Engie from 2022 that ensures supply of 186MW until 2033.

FINANCING

The Centinela project is financed with contributions from AMSA’s shareholders Antofagasta plc and Marubeni Corporation and by a US$2.5bn from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), together with the Japanese private bank Sumitomo Mitsui, government institutions from South Korea and Germany, and credit agencies from Canada and France.

AMSA aims to reach output of 900,000t/y of copper in Chile in the long term with the Centinela expansion.