Quebrada Blanca

Overview

The Quebrada Blanca mine is located in Region I in northern Chile at an elevation of 4,400 metres, approximately 240 kilometres southeast of the city of Iquique and 1,500 kilometres from Santiago. Mine personnel live in a camp facility, and the majority commute from large population centres, including Iquique and Santiago.

Teck owns a 76.5% interest in the mine. The remaining interest is owned by Inversiones Mineras S.A., 13.5%, and Empresa Nacional de Minera, 10%.

Quebrada Blanca is an open pit operation, which leaches the ore to produce copper cathodes via a SX-EW process.

Copper cathode is trucked to Iquique for shipment to purchasers.

Location

The Quebrada Blanca mine is located in Region I in northern Chile at an elevation of 4,400 metres, approximately 240 kilometres southeast of the city of Iquique and 1,500 kilometres from Santiago. Mine personnel live in a camp facility, and the majority commute from large population centres, including Iquique and Santiago.

Geology and Mineralization

The Quebrada Blanca orebody occurs within a 2 km x 5 km quartz monzonite intrusive stock. Supergene enrichment processes have dissolved and redeposited primary (hypogene) chalcopyrite as a blanket of supergene copper sulphides, the most important being chalcocite and covellite, with lesser copper oxides/silicates such as chrysocolla in the oxide zone. The supergene mineralization averages 80 metres in thickness and is, for the most part, overlain by a 100 metre thick, low grade or waste leached cap and unmineralized rock and gravels. Irregular transition zones, with (locally) faulted contacts separate the higher and lower grade supergene/dump leach ores from the leached cap and hypogene zones. 

Mining & Operation

Quebrada Blanca (QB) is an open pit mine that produces an average of 22,000 tonnes per day of heap leach ore and 39,000 tonnes per day of lower grade dump leach ore. Copper bearing solutions are collected from the heap and dump leach pads for processing in an SX-EW plant which produces copper cathode. The SX-EW plant has a design capacity of approximately 75,000 tonnes of copper cathode per year, but has been producing at a rate above this nameplate capacity. Copper cathode is trucked to Iquique for shipment to purchasers.

Preliminary metallurgical testing has determined copper and molybdenum can be recovered from a conventional grinding and flotation plant. No significant deleterious elements were identified in the concentrates.

Processing

Heap leach and dump leach.

Environment & Community

Teck works hard to protect the environment and always strive to act with care and sensitivity towards our surroundings. Its people take this responsibility seriously and show dedication towards environmental stewardship.