The port facilities at Huarmey, Peru for the Antamina copper-zinc mine prove the benefits of incorporating a risk-sharing element into EPC contracts. When the completed facilities were locator map handed over to the owner, Companía Minera Antamina, the project was under budget, ahead of schedule, of good quality and with an outstanding safety record: over 3.0 million man-hours without a lost-time incident.
These excellent results were achieved through close cooperation among the Sandwell-led project team (which included Canadians, quotationPeruvians and Chileans), Bechtel (the overall Antamina project manager) and CMA. Because both Contractor and Owner shared in any project efficiencies and improvements, they were motivated to determine and implement the best solutions through every stage of the project.
The port is designed to handle 1.2 pressure filters, filter press building mtpa of copper concentrate and 0.6 mtpa of zinc concentrate coming from the mine, located 4,300 meters above sea level, through a 300 km slurry pipeline. The receiving systems consist of copper and zinc concentrate receiving tanks and a filter plant. Copper and zinc filter cake discharges from the four pressure filters onto a collecting conveyor system.
wet scrubbersThe filtration treatment and disposal system consists of three clarifiers and a treated effluent pond from which effluent is pumped to an irrigation system.
The onshore facilities also include telecommunications, water and sewage treatment, switchyard substation and power distribution, service buildings and a 6 km access road from the site to the intersection with the Pan American Highway.
shiploader installationConcentrates are loaded via a 1600 tonne/hour slewing, luffing, telescopic shiploader, one of the largest of its kind ever built, and transported in ships ranging in size from 15,000 to 50,000 DWT.
Once it reaches full production, Antamina will be among the largest and lowest cost copper-zinc producers in the world, with average annual production at 675 million pounds of copper and 625 million pounds of zinc in the first ten years.
