en.Wedoany.com Reported - Codelco's Ministro Hales Division (División Ministro Hales) recently completed its largest planned maintenance overhaul of the year at its concentrator plant (Planta Concentradora). Over 650 workers operated in day and night shifts to ensure all tasks were completed according to scheduled milestones and quality standards, with no personnel injuries or equipment damage incidents.

Concentrator Plant Maintenance Superintendent Mario Montoya stated that this overhaul faced several technical difficulties, but through close collaboration among the planning, reliability, and execution teams, along with the direct on-site involvement of reliability engineers for control, it was ultimately delivered on time. He described this outcome as a "tremendous achievement."

Major work scopes included: replacing the trunnion liners at the feed and discharge ends of the SAG mill (Molino SAG) and the stator dust seals; upgrading the control system for Ball Mill 01 (Molino de Bolas 01) and critical support components for Ball Mill 02; simultaneously, maintenance was carried out on flotation cells, replacing valves and pipelines in the tailings transport system.

Electrical, Instrumentation, and Infrastructure Superintendent Nelson Arriagada revealed that it took approximately three years from identifying component aging to completing all logistics and investment preparations. He emphasized that the timely initiation of replacements averted the risk of plant operational interruptions that could have resulted from equipment failures.

This systematic overhaul of the concentrator plant's major components provides the reliability and availability needed for the plant to meet its production plan. According to the plan, the SAG mill's daily processing target for 2026 is 59,400 tonnes.

Ministro Hales Acting General Manager César Jiménez Soto pointed out that the success of this maintenance reflects the comprehensive safety, collaboration, and excellent work at the concentrator plant in recent months. He added that another maintenance shutdown earlier in the year also achieved outstanding results, and in March this year, the plant set its highest historical monthly average for daily processing volume, making all employees proud.

This major maintenance event is an important milestone for the Ministro Hales Division in achieving its 2026 goals and reaffirms its ongoing commitment to contributing to the sustainable development of the Calama region.

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