Process

The ore is extracted from El Tesoro and Tesoro North-East open pits, then crushed, heap leached and transported to the plant. Additionally, there is now a run-of-mine leaching operation on the Esperanza oxide cap. The plant has been designed to use a standard solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) process to obtain LME grade A copper cathodes. The cathodes produced are trucked to the closest train station and then transported by train to the port of Antofagasta by the FCAB for onward shipment to world markets.