Antofagasta's Chile copper mine shut by rains
Date: 07-Jun-02
Country: CHILE
In the worst storms to hit the South American nation in 100 years, a mudslide ruptured a 90-foot (30-meter) section of a pipeline at Los Pelambres that transports copper concentrates.
"The impact from this situation is three days of suspension of operations at Los Pelambres mine. In terms of copper tonnage, this leads to a loss of 3,000 tonnes," the spokesman told Reuters.
Operations are expected to resume on Sunday, he said.
Los Pelambres is located north of Santiago in central Chile, a zone pounded by floods and mudslides this week that killed 11 people and forced thousands to flee their homes.
Meteorologists say the storms, which subsided this week, could be a precursor of El Nino weather that can trigger deadly droughts and floods around the world.
Another copper mine, Exxon's Los Bronces, was forced to halt production from Monday night until midday yesterday after heavy snow cut power lines to the site.
The rains led a channel of water near Los Pelambres to burst its banks, provoking a landslide that sliced through the company's 75-mile (120-km) pipeline. As a result, copper concentrate - a pulp normally containing about 30 percent copper - was dumped into the nearby Choapa River before workers cut off the flow to the pipeline.
"Fortunately, there was no damage to people or property. Regarding the environmental effects, we are monitoring the quality of the water in the Choapa River both upstream and downstream from the area where the incident occurred," the company said in a statement.
Los Pelambres has estimated its 2002 production at 340,000 tonnes of copper concentrates.
Antofagasta also owns the Michilla and El Tesoro mines in Chile, which were unaffected by the bad weather.