The state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, reported on Wednesday that it had an accident at its Chuquicamata mine after the upper part of a material dome and a conveyor belt gave way, without registering injuries or affecting production.
In images spread on social networks, the rupture of the top of the structure was shown in the works of the centenary deposit located in the north of the country.
“At approximately 1:00 p.m. today (1700 GMT), an operational incident occurred in which the upper part of the dome and the 22CV3 belt of the Chuquicamata concentrator, which was not in operation, gave way,” the company said in a statement. short statement.
He added that he will apply a contingency plan to “address operational continuity.”
The company later detailed to Reuters that the incident affected one of the belts that feeds the concentrator from the three ore sources it has and the affected one represents around 15% monthly average of the total ore that feeds the plant.
“The concentrator process makes it possible to supply this portion of the feed so that the plant operates at the same production rate, and thus the impact is offset by the increase in ore processing from other ore sources until the damaged infrastructure,” he explained.
Codelco said that no injuries were reported and that an investigation was launched to determine the causes.
Last month, the state-owned company registered the death of two workers on its construction projects, which even led to the temporary suspension of these works.
