Chuquicamata Subterránea PROJECT

Lorbrand idlers run in what is widely called the most powerful conveyor belt installation on Earth, carrying ore from the block cave beneath the world's largest open-pit copper mine.

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PROJECT REFERENCE

Chuquicamata Underground Mine & Conveying System

Chuquicamata, known as "Chuqui", is a century-old Codelco operation re-engineered to mine the ore body left beneath the world's largest open pit. Construction of the underground block-cave mine began in 2016, with first underground ore in April 2019 and a new conveyor system carrying crushed rock about 14 km to the concentrator plant. The move from open-pit truck haulage to underground conveying extends the mine's life by at least 40 years.
Location Antofagasta, Chile
Operator Codelco
Lorbrand supply 2016
Industry Copper and molybdenum mining
CHUQUI Retractable Impact Idlers under construction
Polines de impacto estación de transferencia 3.jpg
PROJECT DATA

Scale of the operation.

140,000 t/d
Ore Throughput
11 × 5 MW
Gearless Drives
40+ years
Mine Life Extension
Beneath the world's largest open pit lies a vast remaining resource, on the order of 1.76 billion tonnes grading 0.7% copper and 502 ppm molybdenum, which the new block-cave mine is built to convert into roughly 320,000 tonnes of copper and 15,000 tonnes of molybdenum a year. Codelco's total investment in the underground transformation exceeds US$5.5 billion.
LORBRAND SCOPE

Engineered for Chuquicamata Subterránea.

Lorbrand supplied conveyor idlers into Chuquicamata's underground and surface conveying system: the three 11,000 t/h principal conveyors, equipped with gearless drives and large ABB synchronous motors, that are widely described as the most powerful conveyor belt installation in the world. Metso supplied the underground crusher stations and conveyor package, and Lorbrand idlers carry the belts.
Friction test Running Friction vs Time example plot
PROJECT OUTCOME

The installed drive power on the principal conveyors makes this arguably the most powerful conveyor system on Earth, and the underground transformation extends one of Chile's most strategically important mines into the 2050s. Lorbrand has supplied Codelco's Chuquicamata district since the Radomiro Tomic work in 1995.

— Chuquicamata Subterránea · 2016
tunel correa 4.jpg
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