Alumbrera

Description of Operation

Xstrata Copper manages and has a 50 percent controlling interest in the operating company of the Alumbrera open pit copper-gold mine in Argentina. Canadian companies Goldcorp and Yamana Gold own the remaining 50 percent.
Bajo de la Alumbrera is located in the north-west of Argentina, in the province of Catamarca, at an altitude of 2,600 metres. The Minera Alumbrera operations consist of five facilities in three provinces: the open cut mine and processing facilities at Alumbrera, Catamarca; a 317 kilometre concentrate slurry pipeline through Catamarca and Tucumán provinces; a 202 kilometre 220kV powerline from El Bracho, Tucumán; the filter plant and rail loading facilities at Cruz del Norte, Tucumán; and the port and handling facilities at San Martín near Rosario, Santa Fe.

Brief History of the Operation

Bajo de la Alumbrera began operations in 1997 for initial investment of $1.3 billion. Xstrata acquired Alumbrera in June 2003 as part of its MIM Holdings Limited acquisition. Since then a series of low capital cost expansions have increased processing capacity by 54 percent to 40 million tonnes per annum. Since August 2008, the recently-built molybdenum facility has been producing molybdenum concentrates that are being trucked to Chile for processing. In 2008, Alumbrera produced 450 metric tonnes of molybdenum concentrate.