Codelco will spend $250 million to adjust Andina mine to avoid glaciers

SMM: in honor of environmentalists, the world's largest copper producer has announced that the company will avoid harm and protect glacial systems as it expands in the Andes.

Codelco, Chile's state-owned company, has updated its expansion plan, which will be mined on six rocky glaciers in Andina, central Chile. Jorge Sanhueza, the project's sustainability manager, said the company plans to avoid affecting these areas in Andina and all other future projects.

According to a document, the company has asked the environment department to approve a $250 million project that will modify the shape of the current open-pit mine, maintain its size and redirect the mine to avoid glacial areas. Sanhueza said the move was in response to concerns from communities and environmental groups that mining could destroy fragile ecosystems and cause global warming.

In 2015, Codelco suspended a $6.8 billion project to expand Andina as copper prices fell to a five-year low. During the commodities downturn, the San Diego-based company began cutting costs and cut more than $20 billion to upgrade aging mines and maintain investment plans for production. In December, Chief Executive Nelson Pizarro said the company would invest $18.3 billion in 2021.

The Andina mine produced a total of 164000 tons of copper between January and September last year. The new plan will not change the production expectations of the Andina mine or the useful life of the mine. Once approved by the environmental authorities, the project is expected to begin construction in early 2019 and will take three years, according to company documents.

In 2016, Andina was Codelco's fifth-largest mine, producing 193000 tons of copper that year. Over the same period, Codelco's largest El Teniente company produced 475000 tons of copper, while the world's largest BHP Billiton (BHP Billiton Ltd.) Its Escondida copper mine produces about 1 million tons.

SMM Yan Cedar Translation

The text reads as follows:

Copper King Codelco Re-Designs Andina Mine to Protect Glaciers

In a nod to environmentalists, the world's largest copper producer is vowing to avoid and protect glacier systems as it expands across the Andes.

Chile's state-owned Codelco updated expansion plans that would have seen it mine on six rock glaciers at its Andina operations in central Chile. Now the company plans to avoid impacting those areas at Andina and at all other future projects, the mine's sustainability manager Jorge Sanhueza said by phone.

"The CEO has asked us not to work directly on or under the glaciers, both on a day-to-day basis and in future projects that are in the engineering phase," Sanhueza said. "We need the environmental permit necessary to move away from the glaciers and into other areas."