SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean miner Codelco has applied for an environmental permit to extend the life of its Gabriela Mistral mine by more than 25 years with an investment of $800 million, the state-owned company said on Monday.
The world’s largest copper miner wants to extend the mine’s life from 2028 to 2055 and end domestic water use on land by 2035.
Water is essential to several copper mining processes and many mines in Chile, the world’s largest copper producer, are increasingly pumping seawater directly to their operations to avoid using water from lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Codelco said it will supply the same amount of water used by Gabriela Mistral to the northern Chilean region Antofagasta (LON:), where the mine is located, and switches from land-based water to third-party sources that meet environmental standards.
The company did not specify which sources would provide the alternative water supply.
Gabriela Mistral, one of Codelco’s smallest mines, opened in 2008, employs almost 4,000 people and produces about 110,000 tonnes of copper per year, the company says.
To extend the life of the mine, Codelco plans to extract copper oxides and then move on to sulfides, incorporating salt into the chlorinated leaching process to improve recovery rates.
The miner has struggled to boost production after bottoming out in the past two years, and has been hit by delays to major expansion projects.
