Franke
Operation Overview
| Location | Region II, Chile |
| Ownership | 100% |
| Type of Mine | Open Pit |
| Type of Ore body | Oxide copper deposit, volcanic hosted hydrothermal stockwork |
| Primary Metal | Copper |
| Processing | Heap leach with SX/EW |
| End Product | Cathode copper |
| Expected Mine Life | 8.6 years |
| Expected Annual Production | 30,000 tonnes |
| Reserve & Avg. Grade | 41.7 million tonnes, 0.75% Total Copper |
| Infrastructure | Accessible by road, rail, water supply for mine life secured |
With construction complete, the SX/EW processing plant at the Franke Mine is now ramping up to commercial productionfollowing the harvesting of first copper cathode in the third quarter of 2009.
Locality, Climate, Accessibility and Infrastructure:
The Franke Mine is located in the Altamira district, near the southern limit of the Antofagasta Region (Region II) of Chile. The area is accessed from Km 1075 of the Pan-American Highway by about 60 km of gravel road running due east. The project is linked to the local rail system.
The property is located in a plateau between the coast and mountains of Chile in the Atacama Desert, which is one of the most arid deserts on Earth. As such, there is almost no rainfall in normal years and vegetation is minimal, comprising only desert scrub and sparse cactus.
Water is critical to the development of any project in this region and an agreement for 50 lps with Codelco (Salvador Division), located 70 km from the site, has been secured to supply the water for the entire mine life of the Franke project.
The Franke ore contains elevated levels of carbonates, which will result in a high acid consumption. As such, the cost of sulphuric acid will be a very significant component of the overall processing costs. There is the possibility of mitigating this by blending ore from the China deposit, which, based on recent testwork results, has a lower acid consumptions than Franke ore. Nevertheless, a key component of the project is a long term acid supply. To date, a contract has been signed with a local smelter for a supply of 150,000 tons per year of sulphuric acid, which represents approximately 45% of the life-of-mine average annual consumption. Negotiations are ongoing for the balance of the supply.
Power for the project is supplied from the local grid via a 110 kV high voltage line. A power supply agreement has been entered into with Pacific Hydro.