en.Wedoany.com Reported - Chile's state-owned mining company ENAMI submitted the "Continuous Operation and Optimization Project for the Southern Production Complex" for environmental impact assessment in August 2026, planning to invest $14.73 million to extend the operation of the former Planta Delta copper complex by 20 years. The project is located in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, with environmental evaluation, industry permits, and subsequent construction procedures still pending.
The complex produces copper concentrate and cathode copper from ore supplied by the Panulcillo underground mine and regional small and medium-sized mines. Existing facilities include crushing, grinding, flotation, thickening, leaching, solvent extraction, and electrowinning systems. This renovation will not increase the approved ore extraction volume, nor will it expand the authorized processing capacity of the sulfide and oxide ore production lines. The construction focus shifts to tailings disposal, process water recovery, and optimization of supporting facilities.
The project will build a new tailings filter plant, adding 14.6 million tonnes of storage capacity to the existing tailings storage facility, bringing total capacity to 26.8 million tonnes, while maintaining the current footprint of the storage area. Filtered process water will be recirculated to the plant for reuse. The project will also expand the leach waste rock dump by 3.45 hectares, adding approximately 1.544 million tonnes of capacity, and expand the Panulcillo mine waste rock dump by 6.5 hectares, adding 1.2 million tonnes of capacity.
Supporting facilities include a diversion channel of approximately 1,600 meters in length, as well as a recovery water pond, materials management area, rearranged reagent storage rooms, heavy machinery workshop, freshwater pond for the thickening system, and an emergency pond for the tailings filter plant. The maximum workforce during the construction phase will be 116 people, while the operation phase is planned to maintain a staffing level of 293 people. Some existing facilities not previously included in environmental management documents will also be incorporated into this permitting process.
ENAMI obtained a short-term life extension permit for the complex in 2025, extending the operation period by 3 years and 7 months, with an investment of approximately $5.2 million at that time, mainly for raising the height of certain tailings dam sections. The current $14.73 million project represents a new long-term operation plan; upon approval of the environmental assessment, the complex's operating cycle will be extended by an additional 20 years.
