Por: Rafael Carpio, Karim Batallanos, Antonio Bravo y Ely Loayza, Glencore, Antapaccay.

Abstract

This technical document has been developed from a business perspective oriented towards the optimization of resources and assets with the aim of increasing the profitability of the business. To achieve this purpose, openness and synergy between the whole team involved was crucial, as their joint interaction plays a crucial role in achieving our objectives.

Compañía Minera Antapaccay is a major mining operation in Peru, part of the Glencore conglomerate, which began operations in 2012. The open pit mine and the process plant are located at 4,100 masl in the district of Yauri, province of Espinar in the region of Cusco. It has now reached a processing capacity of 117 ktpd between its Antapaccay and Tintaya plants (37% over design). The mine has two pits (South and North), each with particular and differentiated characteristics, which represent a high variability in terms of ore quality and metallurgical response during processing. This creates major challenges in maximizing the value of the mineral resource.

One of the variables to achieve this maximization is by increasing recovery and as a result fine copper production.

The main challenges identified in flotation are losses in coarse fractions due to coarsening of the grind product size (P80), ores with significant presence of carbonates, clays and native copper, and ores with marginal grades and high variability.

Our flotation circuit has a conventional configuration consisting of a rougher-scavenger flotation stage and a cleaner flotation stage. The rougher stage consists of three parallel flotation rows with forced air and self-aspirated cells. Cleaner flotation consists of four cleaning stages (1st cleaner, 2nd cleaner, 3rd cleaner and column cells) and a so-called cleaner scavenger.

Under these conditions the improvement approach follows this process: optimization of key parameters, operational discipline and optimization with technology.