Media centre / News releases
News Releases
All of our press releases are formatted for online viewing and printing (RSS feed available).
Xstrata Copper News Release: Altonorte Commissions Smelter Dust Treatment Plan (PDF)
Please click here for Spanish Version
Antofagasta, 25 January 2008
Xstrata Copper's North Chile Division announces the completion of construction of a smelter dust treatment plant at its Altonorte metallurgical facility in northern Chile's Antofagasta Region.
The project will allow Altonorte to safely recycle the metallurgical dust that the smelter generates during the copper concentrate fusion process. It is one of a series of environmental improvement projects underway at the facility requiring total estimated investment of $28 million.
"This project forms part of Xstrata Copper's commitment to the people of Antofagasta to convert Altonorte into a world-class metallurgical facility that meets the highest environmental standards," said North Chile Division Chief Operating Officer Jon Evans.
The plant has the capacity to treat 100 tonnes of dust a day and will be able to treat all the daily production of dust and inventories of dust stored at Altonorte.
The project achieves important synergies between North Chile Division's two operations in the Antofagasta Region. The project involves an agitated tank leach process that dissolves part of the copper contained in the dust followed by filtration to separate the liquids and solids. The liquid solution (PLS) is transported to Xstrata Copper's Lomas Bayas open pit mine for processing in the SX-EW facility and the solids are re-fed into the Altonorte smelter. The two processes are expected to achieve a global recovery of 94.8% of the copper contained in the dust.
For an estimated investment of $4.5 million, the smelter dust treatment plant created 20 jobs in the construction stage and an extra 14 permanent positions at Altonorte.
In addition, work is underway to complete a $72 million expansion at Altonorte that will increase sulphur dioxide emission capture from 93% to 95.5%. The expansion will increase Altonorte production capacity by almost one third to 380,000 tonnes a year of copper anodes.
Ends
Xstrata Contacts:
Luis Lino
Superintendent Public Affairs
División Norte de Chile, Xstrata Copper
Tel: +56 55 416107
Cel: +56 9 9699 8107
Email: llino@xstratacopper.cl
Emily Russell
Manager Corporate Communications
Xstrata Copper
Tel: +56 2 478 2204
Cel: +56 9 8528 1650
Email: erussell@xstratacopper.cl
Notes to editors
ABOUT NORTH CHILE DIVISION
Xstrata Copper's North Chile Division is based out of the city of Antofagasta and manages the nearby Altonorte custom metallurgical facility and the Lomas Bayas mining operation, 120 kilometres east of the city of Antofagasta. It also administers Xstrata Copper's 44% share in the Collahuasi mine in northern Chile's Region I.
Altonorte produced 282,000 tonnes of copper anode and 9 million pounds of molybdenum oxide in 2006.
ABOUT XSTRATA COPPER
Headquartered in Brisbane, Xstrata Copper is one of the commodity business units within the major global diversified mining group Xstrata plc. Its operations and projects span eight countries: Australia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Canada, the USA, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Its operations are administered by five separate divisions, based close to the mining operations, namely the North Queensland, Alumbrera, North Chile, Southern Peru and Canada divisions. It also has a recycling business (Xstrata Recycling) with plants in the United States and offices in Canada and Asia.
Xstrata Copper is the fourth largest global copper producer with annual managed production of over one million tonnes.
ABOUT XSTRATA PLC
Xstrata is a global diversified mining group, listed on the London and Swiss Stock Exchanges, with its headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. Xstrata’s businesses maintain a meaningful position in seven major international commodity markets: copper, coking coal, thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, vanadium and zinc, with additional exposures to platinum group metals, gold, cobalt, lead and silver, recycling facilities and a suite of global technology products, many of which are industry leaders. The Group's operations and projects span 18 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Germany, New Caledonia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, the USA and the UK. Xstrata employs approximately 50,000 people, including contractors.