Following the news that Anglo American’s Quellaveco copper project in Peru has received its first of a fleet of 30 autonomous 297 t class 794 AC Caterpillar trucks, the first units have also begun arriving at Teck’s Quebrada Blanca 2 (QB2) copper project in Chile, shown in an image shared by Luis Eduardo Melendez Herrera, AHS Systems Implementation Leader for Autonomous Trucks at QB2. The autonomy project for Quebrada Blanca 2 was awarded to Finning together with Caterpillar in May 2019, to include the operation of 28 new autonomous 794 AC electric drive trucks.
QB2 is located in the Tarapacá Region of northern Chile at an elevation of 4,400 m, approximately 240 km southeast of the city of Iquique and 1,500 km from Santiago. Roberto Mosqueira, Manager of Mining Applications and Autonomy of Finning South America, said at the time: “With Caterpillar’s technology for autonomous trucks, we will ensure that our client operates continuously without problems in extreme altitude conditions and without interruptions during the eight months that winter extends in that highland area, no longer exposing operators to adverse conditions. and at risk to their safety.”
On April 28, 2021 in its Q1 report, Teck stated on QB2: “Overall project progress has surpassed the half–way point in April. Significant focus remains on managing COVID–19 and the extensive protocols in place to protect the health and safety of our employees, including proactive testing of the entire workforce. The situation is being actively managed to maintain the current workforce level and allow for further ramp–up as soon as practicable. First production is expected in the second half of 2022.”
The supergene orebody (near-surface deposit) was mined during the initial phase of Quebrada Blanca. QB2 will develop the deeper sulphide resource underlying the existing operation. As a result, QB2 is effectively pre-stripped, which greatly reduces project costs. It has an initial 28-year mine life but will still use only 25% of total reserves and resources. Maximum pit depth will be 720 m with processing of copper ore, including crushing, milling, bulk flotation, thickening and filtering occurring in a new concentrator plant with a production capacity of 140,000 t per day.
