Industria Proyecto: Mining

The Project consists of the incorporation of mining property for its exploitation, which will allow the extension of the useful life of the Negreiros Mining Site, whose objective is the exploitation of caliche and its subsequent processing through heap leaching from where the “rich solution” is obtained and sent through a piping system to the Chemical Plant to obtain a concentrated solution of iodide.

The objective of the Project under evaluation corresponds to the production of lithium salts: lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and lithium hydroxide (LiOH), by concentrating brines through two methods:
– solar evaporation and subsequent precipitation at the lithium carbonate plant, with a production capacity of 5,700 t/year of Li2CO3, and
– solvent extraction at the lithium hydroxide plant, with a production capacity of 9,100 t/year of LiOH (equivalent to 14,300 t/year of Li2CO3).
In addition, 38,900 t/year of KCl will be obtained as a by-product, through the concentration and crystallization of brines in solar evaporation pools, with subsequent processing at the potassium chloride plant.

The Blanco project, located 170 km northeast of Copiapó, is expected to produce approximately 20,000 t/year of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and 58,000 t/year of potassium chloride (KCl) over a period of 20 years of operation plus 2 years of start-up.
It should be noted that Blanco includes a set of facilities for the management of surface runoff water, mainly for the wells, salt deposits and roads.