SHOWCASE MINE OF THE WEEK - CHUQUICAMATA!!

Chuquicamata copper mine, situated 1,650km north of Santiago, Chile, is the second deepest open-pit mine in the world. Chuquicamata, also known as the Chuqui open pit, is 4.3km long, three kilometres wide and more than 850m deep. The mine has been in operation for more than a century. The mine is owned and operated by the Chilean state enterprise Codelco. The open-pit mine produced 443,000t of copper in 2011. Feasibility study is underway to switch to underground production at Chuquicamata by the end of 2018. The ore reserve under the existing pit is estimated to be 1.7 billion tonnes grading at 0.7% copper. The underground development project is estimated to cost more than $4bn - Mining-technology. #mining #copper #size