Codelco Chile is currently developing the El Teniente - New Mine Level Project (NMLP) in order to increase ore production by seeking to mine the ore deposit located under the current operational orebody. Reserves of 2000 million tonnes (Mt) have been quantified, which will be extracted as from the year 2017 by using the panel caving and progressive sinking method._x000D_
Codelco and SKM Minmetal (SKM) jointly developed the project prefeasibility stage (PFS), closing these studies in March 2008._x000D_
The first part of the project approach is to replace mine production currently feeding the Colon concentrator facilities with 137 000 tonnes per day (t/d), focusing attention on a production increase from the year 2026 up to 180 000 t/d._x000D_
Project efforts have also been centred on maximising the contribution of new technologies for both construction and operational phases of the New Mine Level, together with selecting the best mine infrastructure to keep El Teniente operations going on for the next 50 years. Implicit in this is the inherent improvement of a variety of current Mina El Teniente process and management practices._x000D_
The plan is to reduce actual mine operational risks and take advantage of new opportunities afforded by the project, which is in effect a greenfield project with respect to the implementation of fundamental changes in the labour and business environment. In addition, issues related to human resources, maintenance and management, materials handling, establishing centralised operations and accesses, automation and remote operations control and power efficiency could also be addressed._x000D_
The project, beyond the New Mine Level exploitation, considers the mine's future potential, with a second deeper exploration in prospect named Deep Level._x000D_
Finally, the project identifies features that would add value to the mine operations, in an initiative named Space for Future Technologies'. This will allow the eventual implementation of new electrical equipment and the application of mechanised technologies and other process improvements for the mine development._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Revuelta, J, Reyes, F and Pozo, R, 2008. El Teniente new mine level project, in Proceedings First International Future Mining Conference and Exhibition 2008, pp 39-50 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).