If a crusher can process the ore at Mantos Blancos, it can process ore anywhere.
It’s a common sentiment across the Chilean mining industry. The rock is so hard and abrasive here that many mines view Mantos Blancos as the ultimate proving ground.
“Suppliers want to test their products here, and Chilean mines asks if machines were tried in Mantos Blancos, because if they work here, they work everywhere,” says Pablo Carrasco, Mantos Copper’s purchasing superintendent for Mantos Blancos and the company’s Mantoverde mine.
Eight hundred metres above sea level in the Atacama Desert – one of the most arid places on the planet – Mantos Blancos produces around 50,000 tonnes of fine copper each year. The mine runs an oxide circuit for leaching and a sulphide circuit for flotation. By increasing the processing capacity of its sulphide plant, Mantos Blancos plans to maintain current production levels through 2035.
The sulphide circuit consists of a primary crusher, a secondary crusher and three tertiary crushers in a closed circuit, for the production of a product approaching 98 percent smaller than ¼” (6.4mm) to supply the ball mills.