The Quellaveco mine is a large

copper mine Copper extraction is the multi-stage process of obtaining copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ...

project located in the south of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

in the

Moquegua Region Moquegua () is a department and Regional Government of Moquegua, region in southern Peru that extends from the coast to the highlands. Its capital is the city of Moquegua, which is among the main Peruvian cities for its high rates of GDP and nat ...

. It is undergoing government environment approvals for its

Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental impact, environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the te ...

. The last EIA modification was submitted in 2014. The Quellaveco mining property is majority–owned by Anglo American. Quellaveco represents one of the largest copper reserves in

and in the world, having estimated reserves of 1.1 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.55% copper. The planned development of the mine estimates a processing capacity of 85000 metric tonnes per day.

Fluor Corporation Fluor Corporation is an American engineering and construction firm, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a holding company that provides services through its subsidiaries in three main areas: oil and gas, industrial and infrastructure, government ...

has been assigned as the EPCM contractor for this project. The mine is due to begin production in 2022 after an investment of approximately $5bn. In late 2019 it was reported the mine was 34% complete and was on schedule. However, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020, a three-month hold was declared on the project with a reduction in

Capital expenditure Capital expenditure or capital expense (abbreviated capex, CAPEX, or CapEx) is the money an organization or corporate entity spends to buy, maintain, or improve its fixed assets, such as buildings, vehicles, equipment, or land. It is considered ...

for that year in the order of $300 million. By late 2020 it was reported that 15,000 staff were working on the site and the project was due to recover from the shut-down and still enter production in 2022 with a prediction of 330,000 tonnes of copper a year for the first five years. In 2021 the first of three

Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc., also known as Cat, is an American construction, mining and other engineering equipment manufacturer. The company is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 73 on the ' ...

7495 electric

Rope shovel A power shovel, also known as a motor shovel, stripping shovel, front shovel, mining shovel or rope shovel, is a bucket-equipped machine usually powered by steam, diesel fuel, gasoline or electricity and used for digging and loading earth or fragm ...

s was completed on the site. The project intends to pair the 7495s with a fleet of 30 Caterpillar 794 AC Autonomous haul trucks.

Geology

The

porphyry copper deposit Porphyry copper deposits are copper ore bodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of ...

and

hypogene In ore deposit geology, hypogene processes occur deep below the Earth's surface, and tend to form deposits of primary minerals, as opposed to supergene processes that occur at or near the surface, and tend to form secondary minerals. At great d ...

mineralization occurred in the

Early Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

Supergene A supergene is a chromosomal region encompassing multiple neighboring genes that are inherited together because of close genetic linkage, i.e. much less recombination than would normally be expected. This mode of inheritance can be due to genomic ...

sulfide Sulfide (also sulphide in British English) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to large families o ...

enrichment began in the

Late Oligocene The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the pro ...

and continued until the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to ...

Chalcocite Chalcocite (), copper(I) sulfide (Cu2S), is an important copper ore mineral. It is opaque and dark gray to black, with a metallic luster. It has a hardness of 2.5–3 on the Mohs scale. It is a sulfide with a monoclinic crystal system. T ...

is the more common copper ore mineral as massive assemblages.

References

{{coord, 17.1043, S, 70.6199, W, source:wikidata, display=title Copper mines in Peru Mines in the Department of Moquegua Open-pit mines Surface mines in Peru

Geology

See also

References