Emipa aims to become the main copper producer

Good news for the Santa Cruz mining industry. The Paitití Mining Company (Emipa) prepares an investment of $70 million for the consolidation of an oxide plant. With this, the company seeks to become the main copper producer in Bolivia, and the project also contemplates the recovery of other minerals such as silver, gold and zinc.

The Santa Cruz company is a subsidiary of the international firm Orvana Minerals, a Canadian mining and exploration company engaged in the evaluation, development and extraction of base metal deposits.

The firm has been operating for 22 years in Bolivia, specifically in the municipality of San José de Chiquitos. It recently stopped operating due to the depletion of its deposits. However, this does not mean the end of their operations. The complex has a legal concession of more than 50,000 hectares and added to that, it has a large reserve of land rich in minerals that it was collecting while its mine was operating.

Precisely, this reserve will allow the firm to operate, but under other types of conditions. Through the acquisition of technology the company will be able to extract, from this concentrate, copper with a purity of 99.9% with which cathodes of this metal, which is in high demand in the international market, will be produced.

But this does not stop there. Through different technical procedures, the mine foresees the extraction of gold, silver and zinc. John Gavidia, executive director of Orvana, explained that the oxides project is intended to produce 57 million fine pounds of copper in three yearsthis is equivalent to 28,000 tons of this metal that will be processed to extract cathodes (thin plates) that are obtained through an industrial process.

With this stock, Gavidia said that Emipa will be the main producer of this metal in Bolivia and will have a visible place in the international market.
But that is not all, the executive explained that in three years they will have an important production of other metals such as gold and silver, so they will need a large amount of sulfuric acid; indispensable material to separate these minerals from the concentrate.

“We are going to produce 96,000 troy ounces of gold and about 3,600,000 ounces of silver. That is why the input requirements are very significant. For example, we are going to need and consume 45,000 tons of sulfuric acid each year,” the executive said.

For the new project, Emipa foresees the hiring of personnel who have a technical training of at least three years because the work to be done will be very delicate. In total, the company plans to hire 220 people, 50% of this new staff will be female. “This will mobilize the mining industry. We will leave inertia behind”, highlighted Gavidia.

The project is expected to start in November this year.although Gavidia said that much progress has been made in the preparatory work for this initiative by the main mining operator in Santa Cruz.

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Good news for the Santa Cruz mining industry. The Paitití Mining Company (Emipa) prepares an investment of $70 million for the consolidation of an oxide plant. With this, the company seeks to become the main copper producer in Bolivia, and the project also contemplates the recovery of other minerals such as silver, gold and zinc.

The Santa Cruz company is a subsidiary of the international firm Orvana Minerals, a Canadian mining and exploration company engaged in the evaluation, development and extraction of base metal deposits.

The firm has been operating for 22 years in Bolivia, specifically in the municipality of San José de Chiquitos. It recently stopped operating due to the depletion of its deposits. However, this does not mean the end of their operations. The complex has a legal concession of more than 50,000 hectares and added to that, it has a large reserve of land rich in minerals that it was collecting while its mine was operating.

Precisely, this reserve will allow the firm to operate, but under other types of conditions. Through the acquisition of technology the company will be able to extract, from this concentrate, copper with a purity of 99.9% with which cathodes of this metal, which is in high demand in the international market, will be produced.

But this does not stop there. Through different technical procedures, the mine foresees the extraction of gold, silver and zinc. John Gavidia, executive director of Orvana, explained that the oxides project is intended to produce 57 million fine pounds of copper in three yearsthis is equivalent to 28,000 tons of this metal that will be processed to extract cathodes (thin plates) that are obtained through an industrial process.

With this stock, Gavidia said that Emipa will be the main producer of this metal in Bolivia and will have a visible place in the international market.
But that is not all, the executive explained that in three years they will have an important production of other metals such as gold and silver, so they will need a large amount of sulfuric acid; indispensable material to separate these minerals from the concentrate.

“We are going to produce 96,000 troy ounces of gold and about 3,600,000 ounces of silver. That is why the input requirements are very significant. For example, we are going to need and consume 45,000 tons of sulfuric acid each year,” the executive said.

For the new project, Emipa foresees the hiring of personnel who have a technical training of at least three years because the work to be done will be very delicate. In total, the company plans to hire 220 people, 50% of this new staff will be female. “This will mobilize the mining industry. We will leave inertia behind”, highlighted Gavidia.

The project is expected to start in November this year.although Gavidia said that much progress has been made in the preparatory work for this initiative by the main mining operator in Santa Cruz.

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