Metso has won a significant deal to support the conversion of the largest open-pit copper mine in the world to a large-scale underground mining operation. The Chuquicamata mine, located 1,650 km north of Santiago, Chile, is owned and operated by Chile’s National Copper Corporation, Codelco. Metso’s scope in the contract includes the engineering, supply of equipment and materials, and site assistance for 12 underground crusher stations combined with a conveyor package. The delivery contains 11 new units of Metso’s largest C200 jaw crushers, 24 push feeders and 20 conveyors. Overall, the contract constitutes one of the most sizeable crusher orders ever for Metso’s mining business. The project is scheduled to continue until 2020 and the order was booked in Metso’s second-quarter 2016 orders received.

Metso offered an integrated solution that carried through from engineering, crusher stations, and material handling to electrification, automation, and site assistance. In addition, the energy savings from the company’s Energy Saving Idler (ESI) conveyor technology gave the Metso offering a competitive edge. Codelco’s decision to work with Metso was also backed by Metso’s proven installed base of equipment, engineering and project management capability already present in other similar applications in the region, demonstrating Metso’s ability to deliver on time and on budget with production guaranteed. The Metso team was able to offer Codelco the best deal in terms of total cost of ownership and energy efficiency of material and handling.

“We are very proud of this order. It clearly demonstrates that we at Metso are more committed than ever to promoting excellence in our operations to help our customers create profitable and sustainable solutions. It is in this spirit that we fought and won this sizable and strategic deal with Codelco,” says João Ney Colagrossi, President, Minerals Capital business area, Metso.