Cobre Ltd. has unveiled a dual-track plan to boost plant utilisation at its Sierra Atacama operation in Chile, securing low-cost regional feed alongside an on-site copper recovery program to maximise output from its existing infrastructure.
The company has signed an agreement with Empresa Nacional de Minería (ENAMI) to acquire approximately 150,000 tonnes of crushed-leached copper oxide material grading 0.65 per cent copper.
Purchased and delivered to site for around US$9 per tonne, the feed will be trucked at a rate of 30,000 tonnes per month to be blended with ore from Cobre’s underground operations.
Simultaneously, Cobre has launched an on-site recovery program across two workstreams at Sierra Atacama. The company has begun re-leaching historical stacked leach pads estimated to contain over 10 million tonnes of material, with early irrigation trials generating pregnant leach solution containing two grams of copper per litre.
Cobre has also commenced reprocessing copper-rich precipitates and sediments within historical lixiviant ponds by circulating water to dissolve soluble copper sulphates directly into its processing circuit.
Both initiatives aim to maintain high capacity at Sierra Atacama’s solvent extraction–electrowinning (SX-EW) facility during the ramp-up of underground operations and planned open-pit expansions.
In addition, the feeds feature low acid consumption, presenting a distinct cost advantage in the current high acid-price environment.
Cobre CEO Adam Wooldridge said the dual plans provide a unique opportunity to establish Sierra Atacama as a regional processing hub in a well-established mining district with limited electrowinning capacity.
“These initiatives have been identified and moved rapidly into implementation by the Sierra Atacama metallurgy team and have the potential to support increased copper production as we ramp up underground mining and progress toward open-pit operations,” Wooldridge said.
He noted that leveraging material already on site alongside low-cost regional feed allows the company to rapidly generate incremental copper using existing infrastructure.
Initial copper recovery from the historical pond program is targeted for completion by the end of the current quarter, while further pad-leaching trials, including potential injection techniques, will be evaluated to progressively scale production.
