Los Pelambres mine

Los Pelambres mine
Location
Coquimbo Region
Country Chile
Production
Products Copper
History
Opened 1990

The Los Pelambres mine is a large copper mine located in the central-northern of Chile in Coquimbo Region (31°43′00″S 70°29′26″W / 31.716691°S 70.490446°W / -31.716691; -70.490446). Los Pelambres represents one of the largest copper reserve in Chile and in the world having estimated reserves of 4.9 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.65% copper.[1]

The mine was first recognized by Willian Burford Braden in 1920. One of the largest copper deposits in the world, production in 2012 was forecasted at 390 tons of copper and 28,000 ounces of gold.[2]

Geology

"Los Pelambres is both a typical and a very simple porphyry copper deposit." The Upper Miocene tonalite stock is a north-south oriented oval, 4.5 by 2.4 km in size, which has undergone hydrothermal alteration. The stock intruded into andesitic host rocks. Glaciation during the Pleistocene carved the U-shaped Los Pelambres valley. The head of the valley has the highest concentration of ore in a Roche moutonnee. A core of potassium silicate alteration contains the economic copper-molybdenum mineralization. Sulfide minerals include chalcopyrite, bornite, pyrite and molybdenite.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Minera Los Pelambres, Chile" (in Romanian). mining-technology.com. 2012. Retrieved 2013-06-12.
  2. ↑ Charles Caldwell Hawley (2014). A Kennecott Story. The University of Utah Press. p. 109,111.
  3. ↑ Sillitoe, Richard (1973). "Geology of the Los Pelambres Porphyry Copper Deposit, Chile". Economic Geology. 68 (1): 1–10. doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.68.1.1.
Location of the Los Pelambres and El Teniente copper mines in Chile

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