On December 27, Zijin Mining’s Tibet Dragon Copper held a commissioning ceremony for the 160,000 t/y first phase of the Julong Copper Project involving the Qulong mine based on a mine ore production of 100,000 t/d. The project is also producing over 6,000 t/y of molybdenum. The second phase of the new project to 300,000 t/y will achieve an annual output value of 20 billion yuan, accounting for about 2% of Tibet’s GDP. At the same time, plans are being made for a third phase to 600,000 t/y. In the context of the global new energy revolution wave of copper demand for further growth, Zijin says the project will play a positive role in ensuring China’s self-sufficiency in copper.

Julong Copper owns three sets of mineral rights: the Qulong copper-polymetallic mine which is the one in production, then Rongmucuola copper mine and Zhibula copper-polymetallic mine which will be the next to be developed. Zhibula open pit mine has been basically completed and will also ramp up its production in 2022 to over 120,000 t/y.

Located on a snow-covered plateau at an altitude of 4,000-5,400 m, Julong has three characteristics: large reserves, low grade and high altitude. The copper metal amount recorded in resserves is 10.72 Mt, and the associated molybdenum metal amount is 570,000 t.

In June 2020, Zijin Mining bought a 50.1% equity interest of Julong Copper for 3.88 billion yuan, in order to lead the development of the world-class porphyry copper mine with the largest proven reserves of copper resources in China. Relying on the advantages of exploration and development of low-grade resources in Zijin Mining, there is a large amount of low grade copper ore with a grade of about 0.2%, and the total amount of resource will exceed 20 Mt.

Part of the 9 km thyssenkrupp gearless driven conveyor at Julong Copper

Before Zijin Mining entered the project, the mine construction had been stopped for more than a year. It states: “In the face of the long shutdown, the complicated historical legacy, and the harsh environment of ice and snow, cold, low pressure and low oxygen, the test of human will and management ability, Zijin Mining and its partners face enormous challenges in building this super-large mine, which is the highest elevation in the world, to realise large-scale development of low-grade copper resources. Faced with a total investment of more than 15 billion yuan of large-scale plateau construction projects, time is the biggest cost and the greatest benefit.”

In contrast to the overall target of completion and commissioning in 2021, the Zijin project team and more than 50 project collaborators focused on comprehensively improving the level of information technology, intelligence and automation in the mining area, “Through optimising the project plan, scientifically arranging the construction plan, breaking the bottleneck of the project, we solved hundreds of problems in safety, design, construction, installation and commissioning. At the peak, more than 7,000 people participated in the construction.”

As a key investment project in Tibet and a key project of Fujian Province to aid Tibet, Julong Copper has brought new positive changes to the local economy, society, people’s livelihood and employment. Focusing on promoting the development of border areas, enriching the people and promoting national unity, only in 2021, Julong Copper has spent about 120 million yuan on social donations, industrial support and relocation compensation in Jiama Township, Mozhu Gongka County. It recruited about 780 Tibetan college students and employees and earned about 24.5 million yuan for Tibetan employees. It currently has a total of 1,360 employees, of which 61% are Tibetan employees. After the completion of the third phase of the project, the total employment is expected to be more than 5,000 people.

At present, Julong Copper is carrying out the overall planning of mine development, focusing on the comprehensive development and utilisation of low-grade resources, and plans to implement the second and third phase projects in phases. If the project is approved by the relevant government departments, it is expected to eventually achieve an annual output of about 200 Mt of ore mining, and copper metal output of more than 600,000 t per year.

Julong already has one of the most up to date mining fleets in China which is both internationally and domestically sourced including for electric rope shovels alone from Taiyuan Heavy (TYHI) three WK-12s, three WK-35s, one WK-45 and one huge WK-55 with a 110 t bucket capacity to load 220-363 t class trucks and having a 20.17 m boom. The trucks at Qulong are mainly from China’s market leader Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co (NHL) in Baotou. They include 34 NTE260 electric drive trucks equipped with QSK60 Cummins engines and Siemens drives; with Siemens also having supplied the power for a 9 km, mainly downhill long distance thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions 10,000 t/h conveyor at the mine (consisting of two conveyor flights – CV04 and CV05) having 2 x 6,000 kW gearless drives generating 1,023 kNm of torque and giving a speed of 7.5 m/sec running at 56 rpm. It has a drop height of 585 m and a maximum drop angle of 12 degrees. thyssenkrupp also won the order to supply two sets of primary gyratory crushers. MTU also has Series 2000 engines on smaller 100 t class haul trucks from both XCMG and NHL at the mine (XCMG XDE110 and Terex TR100).

Metso Outotec is supplying a full scope of advanced minerals processing equipment and an advanced process control system to Julong including six crushers, eight SAG grinding mills, eight ball mills and eight stirred mills, four vertical plate pressure filters and 16 vibrating screens, as well as related services like installation, start-up, commissioning and technical direction.

Autonomous haulage technology major TAGE Idriver and Julong Copper have also signed a cooperation agreement relating to the development of an unmanned haulage project at the Qulong open pit copper mine using TAGE Idriver’s “Kuanggu” or “Unmanned Valley” AHS solution which it says offers both outstanding performance, but als proven high reliability in extreme environments. TAGE Idriver added that Zijin Mining and Tibet Julong Copper “have made strategic overall planning for an unmanned mining area, among which unmanned transportation is an important part.” In the pilot phase, TAGE Idriver will complete an autonomous retrofit of several Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co (NHL) NTE260 236 t class trucks at Qulong and establish a set of unmanned transport systems for open-pit mining, including a ‘vehicle-road-cloud.’ The comprehensive phase will apply autonomy to more than 150 mining trucks and other vehicles. The technology group says it will fully support the pilot project at Qulong, and “ensure the smooth landing of Zijin Mining and Tibet Dragon Copper driverless planning, and lay a good foundation for future large-scale application.”