Altonorte smelter

Description of Operation

Altonorte is a custom copper smelting operation located near the port of Antofagasta in northern Chile. The smelter has the capacity to process 900,000 tonnes of copper concentrate per year, yielding 290,000 tonnes of anode copper and 800,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid annually.

Brief History of the Operation

Altonorte began as a concentrate roasting operation in 1988 under the name of Refimet. The company was owned 66.6% by Inversiones del Pacifico and 33.4% by Minera Barrick Chile. In 1993, a copper smelter was built with a design capacity of 235,000 tonnes per annum of concentrate. Four years later the capacity was raised to 390,000 tonnes per annum of concentrate.

In 1998, Refimet was acquired by Noranda. The company was renamed Noranda Chile and the smelter became known as Altonorte. A major expansion project costing US$170 million was completed in 2003. The project included the installation of a new concentrate dryer, the replacement of the reverberatory furnace with a continuous reactor, new converters and acid plant, an additional anode furnace, a second casting wheel, and a slag flotation plant. Following the project, sulphur dioxide capture increased to more than 93%. In 2005, Altonorte started to process molybdenum concentrate.

In August 2006, Altonorte was acquired by Xstrata as part of the Falconbridge assets. A new expansion is underway to increase capacity to 1.2 million tonnes per annum of copper concentrate by 2009.