CARMEN DE ANDACOLLO – START-UP OF TECK’S NEW COPPER CONCENTRATOR

*C.S.R. Rondestvedt1 and M. Bustos1 and L. Torres1

1
Compania Minera Carmen de Andacollo
Camino A Chepiquilla, Casilla 3
Andacollo, 1V Región, Chile
(*Corresponding author: craig.rondestvedt @teck.com)

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 CARMEN DE ANDACOLLO – START-UP OF TECK’S NEW COPPER CONCENTRATOR

ABSTRACT

In February 2010, Teck’s newest Concentrator at Mina Carmen de Andacollo (CDA), Andacollo,
Chile was commissioned. The Concentrator is a single line configuration, comprising of one 36 ft diameter
x 20 ft long SAG mill driven by an 18,000 hp gearless drive. The SAG mill feeds two ball mills each 25 ft
in diameter x 40.5 ft long, each driven by a total of 19,000 hp through dual pinion drives. A series of four
phases will be reviewed from operational readiness, mechanical completion, commissioning, and ramp-up.
Also, now after 6 months of operation, this paper will review the significant steps taken during ramp-up
enabling the announcement of commercial production, in October 2010.

KEYWORDS

Operational readiness, mechanical completion, pre-commissioning, commissioning, ramp-up, commercial

production

INTRODUCTION

History

Mina Carmen de Andacollo is located 350 km north of Santiago (Chile’s capital city) and 55 km
southeast of La Serena in Region IV of Coquimbo, close to the community of Andacollo illustrated in
Figure 1. Andacollo is a Chilean community with over 400 years of mining history, primarily for gold. The
word ‘Andacollo’ in the native Quechua dialect translates as “Gold of the Queen”. Mina Carmen de
Andacollo began operations on November 29 th, 1996 with a LIX-SX-EW Plant, capable of producing
20,000 ton of fine copper with estimated reserves of 34 million tons of ore averaging 0.73% copper grade.
Aur Resources (63%) and Enami (37%) were the initial owners of the mine.

Figure 1- Map of Region

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 The mine is located less than a kilometer away from the community of Andacollo, which presents
a challenge, from the point of view of the relationships with the community. A drilling assessment for
primary sulphides was carried out from 1998 to 2004. The aim was to determine if the Property could be
developed further using a conventional Concentrator Plant. The feasibility study of the Hypogene Project
began in 2005 and completed in 2006. That study determined an ore reserve of 420 million tons with an
average grade of 0.38% Cu and 0.13% grams per ton Au. In 2007 Aur Resources increased its participation
in Mina Carmen de Andacollo to 90% and in turn that same year, Aur Resources was bought by
TeckCominco.

The construction phase of the new Concentrator Plant began in 2008 and ended in 2009.

CDA HYPOGENE PROJECT

Operational Readiness

One of the first tasks for the Hypogene Project was to develop a comprehensive Operational
Readiness Plan to address the needs for a successful start-up. Considerations of the local community and
an already established workforce were to be given equal weighting with regards to all decisions relating to
the Operational Readiness Plan. One of the primary reasons for the integration of existing personnel into
the new Concentrator manpower staffing plan was that the SX/EW Plant has only two years of operation
remaining versus the Concentrator which has a +20 year life.

Below we have taken some of the key elements of the Operational Readiness Plan to illustrate
some of the thought processes with developing this plan.

Safety

Risk inventory – identifying and documenting all potential risks associated with the Concentrator
systems and sub-systems was a top priority. A risk registry was created for inclusion into our safety
plan which was implemented into the training of all employees working in the Concentrator.
Work procedures – all operations and maintenance tasks were broken down and reviewed to establish
“Best Practises” within the work procedures, while personnel worked with or around equipment.
Critical tasks – these tasks required a thorough “Task Analysis” to be completed and documented for
future reviews by operations or maintenance groups prior to commencing work.
Personal protective equipment – a group was formed to review current equipment being used onsite,
plus what other Concentrators were using to determine what PPE was best for Carmen de Andacollo.

Manpower recruitment

Management structure - senior operational personnel defined what the managerial structural
requirements would be for both the operations and maintenance groups.
Community expectations – commitments were made during the feasibility study and approval process
to give the local communities first preference for the recruitment of personnel.
Existing employees – two factors needed to be met prior to any commitments for allowing SX-EW
employees an opportunity to work in the Concentrator. First, a complete profile was done on each
employee to see if they had the required aptitude. Secondly, an assessment of previous and current
skill sets were documented to see the possibilities for placement.
Maintenance – with the determination to use contractors during scheduled shutdowns and regular
maintenance for electrical, mechanical, welding, relining, and belt repairs. Our few CDA mechanical
and electrical employees had to be capable to perform troubleshooting along with supervisory duties
of the contractors during routine preventative maintenance and major shutdowns.
Operations – all operating functions would be performed by CDA personnel. These assignments
required tight controls while trying to integrate existing SX-EW personnel and people from the
communities. For senior operators operating in flotation, filter plant, and the control room, only
experienced employees from other established properties was required. Clean-up functions were

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 contracted out to a locally owned company that guarantied employees would be hired from local
communities.

Training

Supervision – prior to start-up, all supervisors were given training with regards to Teck corporate and
CDA policies and procedures. Roles, expectations and responsibilities were reviewed, along with the
local union agreement articles.
Maintenance training –all maintenance personal received extensive vendor training with regards to
their equipment for the Concentrator.
Operator training – operators took part in a two step program, first, in the classroom understanding the
theory for each circuit and secondly, groups were sent to different operations within Chile receiving
actual on the job training.

Warehouse inventor

Critical spares – a review of all systems and sub-systems was conducted by senior project,
maintenance, and operational personnel determining what spares would be onsite and what spares
would be with local vendors. The primary requirement for vendor held spares was delivery to site
within 12-hours.
Inventory – vendors provided recommended spare parts lists for their respective equipment ensuring
availability. Also, CDA took the position that these vendors would maintain spares within their
inventory for delivery to site within 24-hours.
Planning – one of our concerns was, would we have the critical spares, and inventory onsite prior to
start-up. We decided to have one planner dedicated to review, coordinate delivery, storage, and
stocking of all parts ensuring that they were actually onsite.

Contractor strategy

Local contractors – selection of local contractors was a top priority of CDA senior management. These
contractors in turn were required to hire and train local community people in order to be eligible to
provide services at CDA.
Contractor review – a review of all contractors providing services to the existing SX-EW Plant, was a
must to determine if they had the capabilities (manpower & resources) to meet the requirements of
providing similar functions for the new Concentrator.

Mine to Mill

Concept – one year prior to start-up senior mine and mill personnel met to establish a mine to mill
group that would initially meet twice a week. This group evolved to include a weekly conference call
with marketing personnel creating a Mine to Mill to Marketing team.
High mercury – this was a major concern during the feasibility study with regards to how the
Concentrator would deal with this issue. One method would be the selection of reagents and secondly
the delivery of ore to the primary crusher. The option of separate high mercury concentrate storage
onsite and at the Port proved to be challenging given the storage capacity at each location.

Recommendations for Future Projects

Computer based training – has to be part of our future projects, not only for operators, but tradesmen
as well. Relying on operator to operator theory and practical training creates knowledge loss. Today,
tradesmen trouble shooting skills require continual training, ensuring reduced down time, and
providing long term solutions. Given the cost of down time, this is a cheap investment.
External supervisor training – a better job has to be done with the training of our front line supervisors
in providing them the tools to succeed. Roles and responsibilities have to be well defined prior to any

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 start-up. We cannot continue to demand supervisors to have more responsibility than actual authority;
these two must have equal weighting.

Mechanical Completion

Mechanical completion was defined for CDA purposes, as the event after construction and pre-
commissioning, but prior to commissioning and ramp-up. As per Figure 2 below, all construction, function
checks, pre-commissioning testing, and system testing with air and water had be finished in order to
declare mechanical competition. AMEC was responsible to ensure the entire various contractor
requirements were completed, along with the CDA commissioning team observing compliance during the
various walk-downs.

Project Sequence and Responsibilities

Construction Phase Pre-Commissioning Phase Commissioning Phase Ramp-up

Owner Final Demonstration

Construction
And Walk Through

Construction Completed
Functional Checks

Testing

Construction
System Air & Water
Completion Testing

Commissioning with
Mechanical
Feed

Completion
Ramp-up

Feed On

Responsibility: Amec CDA

Manager Contractor Manager Pre-Commissioning Manager Commissioning Concentrator Manager

Red & Yellow Yellow Green Green & White

Construction Pre-Commissioning Commissioning Ramp-up

Figure 2 – Project sequence and responsibilities

Pre-commissioning

AMEC pre-commissioning and Teck commissioning teams defined all system and sub-systems,
pre-commissioning plans and procedures, and guidelines for conditions of turnover and acceptance
between the two groups. These definitions were incorporated within Teck’s commissioning plan for
Carmen de Andacollo Hypogene Project. The following generally describes the activities that are
completed prior to pre-commissioning completion:

Hydro-testing, flushing and installation of piping systems.

Mechanical completion of specialty piping, systems installation of lubricants, grease, and fluids.
Functional checkout of all the equipment locally and through programmable logic controllers (PLC’s).
Motor run-in upon completion of the functional checkout of motor control circuits.
Splicing and alignment of conveyors.
Final alignment and coupling of equipment after motor run-in.
Operational testing of equipment under no-load conditions.
Completion of all QA/QC forms and turnover documentation by system.
Completion of punchlist items which impact either safety or operability.
Completion of thermal insulation.
Construction and non-destructive testing such as density or compaction testing of soils, strength
testing of concrete, torquing of bolts, ground resistance testing, and hi-pot testing of power cables.
Pre-commissioning testing.

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 Other actions, inspections and testing as are reasonably necessary to establish a system or sub-system
is functionally complete and ready for turnover to CDA for commissioning and ramp-up.

Systems and Sub-Systems

As mentioned above all equipment for pre-commissioning and commissioning had to be divided
up into systems & sub-systems. These systems were defined as:

Area – 200 Primary Crusher, CV-001 stockpile Feed Conveyor, and Primary Stockpile System
Area – 300 SAG Mill, and Grinding System
Area – 400 Bulk Flotation System
Area – 500 Reagent System
Area – 600 Concentrate Thickening and Filtration System
Area – 700 Transportation of Concentrates and Port Facility System
Area – 800 Tailing and Water Separation System
Area – 900 Infrastructure System

The first sub-system ready to be pre-commissioned was the fresh water pumping system from the
community area of Pan Azúcar. The fresh water pumping sub-system (Infrastructure system) comprised of
five wells and five booster stations pumping from an elevation of 136 meters to 1000 meters via 39
kilometres of 22” steel piping into the 7,000 m3 fresh water storage pond above the Concentrator. AMEC
and CDA personnel established a flow rate of 200 litres/per/second into the 7,000 m3 water pond on
November 8th, 2009.

One of the issues was the amount of rust contaminating the water. The Team could not allow the
water to enter directly into the 7,000 m3 pond as this was also the potable water storage for the Property.
Our first option was to divert the water using TK-72 head tank above the #5 pumping station for a few
hours. The visible amount of rust within the water was reduced, but after testing for water quality, the
Team could not allow the water to be pumped directly into the 7,000 m 3 water pond. The only option left
was to bypass the 7,000 m3 water pond and feed directly into the 60,000 m3 main process water pond.
CDA’s commissioning Team mechanics completed the installation of a lateral piping arrangement,
including isolation valves the next day. The fresh water pumping system ran for two days before the water
quality was acceptable to be directly feed into the 7,000 m3 fresh water pond.

Our first completed system to be pre-commissioned was Area – 200 primary crusher, CV-001
stockpile feed conveyor and primary stockpile. On December 5 th, 2009 all sub-systems within area- 200
ran for 8 hours of continuous operation without ore.

Prior to completing the pre-commissioning of Area – 200 there were a few issues that required
creative engineering. Of issue were; the countershaft assembly for the primary crusher, and the fluid drive
couplings on CV-001 stockpile feed conveyor. The countershaft assembly was tripping on high
temperature after six-hours but was required to complete an 8-hour run-in period prior to turnover. AMEC,
Teck and vendor engineers assembled at a recommended machine shop in Santiago to resolve the
overheating issue. Upon review, it was determined the spring tensioning system required spacers and
careful assembly, given the tight tolerances on the main shaft. As for the fluid drive coupling on CV-001
conveyor, the main issue was the load sharing between the four motors. During the 1st fluid fill sequence of
each coupling, proper care was required to ensure the couplings received an equal amount of oil.

Organizational Structure

Within the Commissioning Plan, Teck recognized the need and opportunity to integrate Carmen
de Andacollo operational team members with engineers from other Teck Operational Units. Five engineers
were selected to join the commissioning team from the different North American Operational Groups
representing Coal, Zinc, Copper, and Smelting & Refining divisions. The selection included two process

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engineers, two mechanical engineers, and one electrical engineer. Below in Figure 3, is the commissioning
team organizational chart used for both pre-commissioning and commissioning of CDA’s Concentrator.

Amec Pre- CDA Pre-Commissioning CDA General Manager

Commissioning Team Manager
& Pierino Venturini
Pre-Commissioning Warren Yau
Manager Operations Manager Concentrator Manager

Víctor Ferreira Javier Escuti Marcelo Bustos

Mill Maintenance Commissioning

General Foreman General Foreman Manager

Julio Cortes Luis González Craig Rondestvedt

Mechanical Mechanical Planning & Electrical & Process Metallurgist

Mill Field Training Inst. Controls Dawn Pumnea
John Martin Yerko Rojas M. Cifuentes I. Sanhueza Luis Torres
Graham Littlley R. Noriega J.C. Catalan J. Sutherland
Shane Green Jaime Awmack
Daniel Luer

Mech. Mech. CTM Elect. Process Process

Specialist Specialist Training Specialist Control Specialist
Specialist

Figure 3 – Commissioning team organizational chart

Roles and Responsibilities

As shown in Figure 1, along the bottom of the chart, the areas of responsibility between AMEC
and CDA Teams, with AMEC responsible for construction & pre-commissioning and CDA responsible for
commissioning & ramp-up. Table 1below illustrates the responsibilities and interaction between AMEC
and CDA teams.

Table 1 – Roles and Responsibilities

AMEC Pre-Commissioning Manage pre-commissioning testing Assemble and transmit turnover
Team of systems packages to the CDA
Manage system turnovers, Commissioning Team for sign-
including punchlists off

CDA Commissioning Team Monitor and witness AMEC Witness pre-commissioning tests
QA/QC activities Review pre-commissioning
Monitor punchlist activities packages from AMEC
Coordinate strategies of pre- Review punchlist issues
commissioning turnovers with Apply acceptance criteria to pre-
overall commissioning schedule commissioning turnover
Audit AMEC QA/QC, non- packages
conformance, field change Coordinate all turnover issues
documentation for pre- with CDA operations and
commissioning turnover quality maintenance groups
Audit contents of turnover Accept pre-commissioning
packages turnover packages from AMEC
on behalf of CDA

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Change in Strategy

As of December 5 th, 2009 only one system was mechanically complete, and with a commitment
from AMEC and Teck commissioning teams to declare Mechanical Completion before the end of the Year,
a new approach with regards to pre-commissioning the remaining systems had to be taken. One of Teck’s
main concerns was that Construction contractors were going to finish all construction of systems at one
date, rather than the originally planned staggered dates. Teck with AMEC decided that the only way to
pre-commission the remaining six systems, along with the remaining Infrastructure sub-systems was to
divide the pre-commissioning responsibilities between AMEC’s Pre-commissioning Team and Teck’s
Commissioning Team.

AMEC continued with:

Area 300 – SAG mill & Grinding Systems

Area 700 – Transportation of Concentrates & Port Facilities
Area 800 – Tailings & Water Separation Systems
Area 900 – Infrastructure Systems

Teck Commissioning Team worked on:

Area 400 – Flotation Systems

Area 500 – Reagent Systems
Area 600 – Concentrate Thickening & Filtration Systems
This realignment enabled all systems and sub-systems to be pre-commissioned by December 24th,
2009. This was a major milestone for the Project and allowed Mechanical completion for the Project prior
to Year end.

Commissioning
Commissioning with ore was the next phase prior to the ramp-up phase and was to commence
immediately after Mechanical completion. This next step of feeding the Concentrator with ore had to be
delayed until repairs to the concrete floor of the tailings thickener could be made. Of issue: during the
filling of the tailings thickener with water, spigots beneath the center well started leaking too much water
and it could not be assumed that the leaks would stop once the bed of the thickener was established. The
thickener was drained and effected areas were removed and replaced.

Planning for Commissioning

The Commissioning Plan “Mission Statement” had two parts for the commissioning team to
execute in order for commissioning to be determined a success:

Complete the capital development of Carmen de Andacollo Hypogene Project by ensuring that
integrated sections of the Concentrator and related systems, faithful to the feasibility study, are
commissioned and turned over in satisfactory ore-processing condition to the Operations Team.
Initiate the successful operation of the Concentrator, while supporting the goals of achieving design
production, marketable grade concentrate, high recovery rates, and provide assistance for long-term
improvements in efficiency and reliability.

The Commissioning Plan also established a “Strategic Plan” for providing guidance by
identifying, addressing, and allowing for contingencies with issues specifically related to CDA. This plan
was broken down into five key elements:

Metallurgical objectives– addressed two main issues identified within the feasibility study of high
mercury and secondly controlling the concentrate grade for the initial ore production.

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 Initial ore campaign – with the introduction of “Mine to Mill” a year ahead of construction
completion, the Mining and Milling Groups focused on common goals to succeed together.
Minimal equipment configuration –all systems and sub-systems were divided up into three main
macro-blocks:

1. Equipment not directly related to handling ore (utilities, sampling systems)

2. Equipment directly related to handling of ore and slurry (Crushers, mills, flotation)
3. Equipment directly related to handling concentrate (Filters, load-out, hauling, and port)

Equipment sequencing timetable – all equipment directly related to handling ore and slurry were
scheduled to be commissioned with ore or water prior to the introduction of ore to the Concentrator.
Upstream of the Concentrator was the primary crusher and stockpile to establish ore for the reclaim
feeders, and secondly downstream, by having sufficient water within the tailing basin for operating the
grinding circuit.
Risks & contingencies – a risk summary table was established to identify potential risks within
metallurgical, processing, mechanical, electrical/utilities, engineering, and regulatory approval
requirements. These identified risks were/would be mitigated with preventive measures to be taken, or
implementation of contingency plan options.

Start-up with ore

On January 19 th, 2010 commissioning with ore commenced for all plant facilities from the
primary crusher through to the tailings impoundment pond. Significant features of the process plant include
a 60” x 89” primary crusher and stockpile, reclaim belt feeder system into a 36 ft diameter SAG mill, and
two 25 ft diameter ball mills. (Fig. 4) Copper and gold are extracted via 200 m3 tank cells with 70% of the
copper/gold concentrate being recovered from a single 200 m3 pre-rougher tank cell at the head-end of the
flotation circuit. Concentrate is thickened and filtered at site with the final concentrate being transported
approximately 55 kms to the load-out facility located at the Port of Coquimbo. Flotation tailings is
thickened and then pumped to the tailings impoundment, where the process water is reclaimed via a series
of barges and then pumped to the 60,000 m3 mill process water storage pond.

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 Figure 4 – Carmen de Andacollo SAG & Ballmills

The Concentrator started up as an autogenous grinding circuit, using a basic configuration of:
automill, #2 ballmill, pre-rougher tank cell, pre-rougher cleaners, concentrate thickener, flotation tails
pump, and tailing thickener. Using this methodology, we were able to establish:

Automill – testing for the 22,500 hp wrap-around motor and liners inside the mill.
#2 Ballmill – enabled secondary steel addition to be taken up to 90%of the total charge. (685-tons )
Pre-rougher – allowed concentrate to be removed to the pre-rougher cleaners and feed directly to the
concentrate thickener.
Concentrate Thickener – recirculation of concentrate, establishing thickener bed and density for the
filtration plant.
Tailings Thickener – recirculation of pre-rougher tails, establishing a bed and density for pumping to
the tailings impoundment.

This basic operating configuration enabled all other sections of the Concentrator to be
commissioned with ore in an organized systematic planned sequence. On February 15 th, 2010 Carmen de
Andacollo Commissioning Team successfully completed the commissioning of all Concentrator systems
and sub-systems for the Project. Of note, during the commissioning phase there were no reportable injuries
or incidents.

Ramp-up

Ramp-up is the last phase prior to “Commercial Production” being achieved. This phase was lead
by CDA Operational Team, where the Concentrator and its associated systems and sub-systems are
operated according to the production plan. During this phase the Operational Team increased production
rates to design tonnage, recovery, and concentrate grade for the Project. Also, this phase enables Operation
and Maintenance Teams to evaluate all systems and sub-systems, ensuring “Fit for Purpose.”

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Performance Tests

There was no contractual performance test prescribed within the AMEC-EPCM contract, but the
Operational Team goals during the ramp-up phase were:

Demonstrate, the Concentrator is capable of processing during a 30-day period (720 hours), 75% or
more of the tonnage set forth in the design parameters, which is the tonnage necessary in producing
20 million tons per Year (tpy) or average a minimum of 41,000 metric tons per day( tpd) of the
designed 55,000 tpd, during a 30-day period.
Demonstrate, within the above 30-day period, that the Concentrator is capable of processing during a
continuous 48-hour period 100% or more of the tonnage established in the design parameters, or 2,420
tons per hour (tph) continuously during a 48-hour period.

First Step

The goal during this step was to establish continuous running of all systems and sub-systems,
while setting up equipment to perform within design parameters.

The Maintenance Team monitored and adjusted equipment with various vendor representatives to
ensure production and performance criteria were met. CDA electrical and mechanical groups with
contractor maintenance groups performed daily inspections, training, and improvements throughout the
Concentrator during this period.

Operational crews trained and gained confidence while increasing availability, tonnage, recovery,
and production of saleable concentrate. The tonnage on February 15th averaged 11,000 tpd and increased
to 17,500 tpd or 31.8% of design by April 30 th, while copper recovery and final concentrate grade
improved to 70.4% and 22.1% respectively.

Some of the issues experienced during this step were cyclone feed pumps, steel chip generation,
electrical communication, tank cell dart controls, belt feeder tracking, secondary steel addition, and
equipment programming.

Second Step

The goal during this step was to push the equipment while determining where all the bottlenecks
were from preventing the Concentrator to achieve tonnage and recovery designs. This step started May 1 st
to June 12th, creating numerous clean-up and performance issues throughout the Concentrator.

CDA maintenance groups, maintenance contractors, and vendors continued to monitor and adjust
equipment. Areas requiring review; groups consisting of operations, metallurgy, maintenance personnel,
along with relevant vendors were formed to evaluate equipment and systems needing modifications or
replacement during future shutdowns.

Operational crews increased tonnage to average 34,100 tpd or 62% of design with 73.4% copper
recovery and 23.2% concentrate grade during this step. Some observations creating constraints for further
increases in tonnage were:

SAG mill grates – grate opening were 2 3/8” (60mm) with 8.2% total discharge area open.
Magnet – one magnet protecting the pebble crushers, forced the closed size setting to be set at 1 ½”
(38mm). The metal detector after the magnet started the bypass conveyor well over 500 times per 12-
hour shift.
Cyclone feed pumps – tonnages over 1000 tph per ballmill, caused the cyclone feed box to overflow.
SAG mill screendeck – top deck pre-maturely failing due to direct impact from the SAG discharge.

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Third Step

The goal during this step was to implement changes required to address the constraints preventing
the Concentrator from achieving design tonnage. Starting June 13 th to July 14 th our plan was to shut down
one ballmill at a time for extended periods to address the following:

Cyclone feed pumps – replaced both #1 and #2 cyclone feed pumps from 24” x 26” to 26” x 30”
pumps.
Cyclone underflow return launders – increased launder slope back to the ballmill, thus reducing the
amount to steel chips building up on the bottom of the launders causing them to overflow. This
spillage created lubrication contamination for both ballmills.
Secondary steel addition – the original design was to add steel into the cyclone underflow launder via
a ball chute using the cyclone crane. A temporary ball chute was fabricated to directly add steel into
the ballmill feed chutes using the main grinding crane.
SAG mill screendeck – a secondary impact bed was installed with side deflectors inside the SAG mill
discharge chute preventing slurry from direct impact and provide better distribution over the
screendeck.
Electrical switch rooms – chemical grounding system was installed to improve communication signals
between the various room plc´s. Also, time was taken to check each connection on every panel within
all switch rooms.
200 m3 Tank cells – all air lines feeding the dart controls were replaced to ½” from 3/8”. This helped
maintain dart movement functions at low volume rates.
Emergency ponds – new submersible pumps were installed to better handle material removal from
these ponds.

Mill performance during this step; tonnage was reduced to an average of 22,571 tpd, while copper
recovery and final grades increased to 81.12% and 23.15% respectively.

Fourth Step

Between July 15th and September 30th, the final step took place, with our objective being to push
the Concentrator performance to feasibility design study expectations. These expectations included;
exceeding design tonnage of 55,000tpd, copper recovery of 82%, and a final concentrate grade of 24%. As
per the performance test objectives our operational team goals were to produce more than 75% of design
tonnage for a 30-day period, and exceed the design tonnage rate of 2,420 tph continuously over a 48-hour
period within the same 30-days.

Areas of change during this final step, having a positive impact during ramp-up:
Increased primary steel size to 5.5” ball from 5”
Completed the installation of a second magnet to remove tramp steel before the pebble crushers
Increased the SAG mill grates slots from 60 mm to 75 mm. (open area increase from 8.1 % to 8.8 %)
Primary stockpile dome construction completed allowing the stockpile to increase from 70% to 100%
capacity.

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 CDA Daily Mill Tonnage - kTpd
70 Step #4
Step #3
60 Step #2
Step #1
50
40
30
20
10
0
14/02
19/02
24/02
01/03
06/03
11/03
16/03
21/03
26/03
31/03
05/04
10/04
15/04
20/04
25/04
30/04
05/05
10/05
15/05
20/05
25/05
30/05
04/06
09/06
14/06
19/06
24/06
29/06
04/07
09/07
14/07
19/07
24/07
29/07
03/08
08/08
13/08
18/08
23/08
28/08
02/09
07/09
12/09
17/09
22/09
27/09
02/10
07/10
12/10
17/10
22/10
27/10
01/11
06/11
Tonnes Milled CDA Planned milled CDA New

Figure 5 – CDA Ramp-up Steps

Figure 5 illustrates the four steps taken during the ramp-up phase of the Project, with Step #4 showing the
normal ramp-up curve one would expect. As mentioned earlier, ramp-up started on February 15 and
completed with commercial production being achieved on October 1 st, 2011. Various milestones achieved
during step #4:

August 3 rd – 1st day the daily tonnage exceeded design tonnage at 55,741tons
August 26th – maximum one day tonnage record of 62,512 tons
August exceeded 75% of tonnage design – 1 st month to produce a daily average of 45,212 tpd or
82.2% of design tonnage.
September 17 th to 22nd – exceeded design tonnage rate of 2,420 tph (2,434 tph) over a six-day period
with a daily average of 58,411 tpd, or 106.2% of design.
September exceeded 75% of design tonnage – 2 nd consecutive month to produce a daily average of
48,824 tpd or 88.8% of design tonnage.
September copper recovery & final concentrate grade – copper recovery of 82.9% versus a design of
82% and a concentrate grade of 24.9% versus design of 24%.
Ramp-up – Started February 15 th and concluded September 30th, 2011 taking 7.5-months.

Commercial Production for Carmen de Andacollo Concentrator was declared as of October 1 st,
2011.

CONCLUSIONS

Carmen de Andacollo Concentrator start-up had its share of interesting, along with challenging
moments. To say these were all equipment related would be a mistake, as cultural and structural behaviours
came into play on more than one occasion. Also, construction of the primary stockpile dome during a
ramp-up phase is not recommended.

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 The usage of contractors to do day to day maintenance and preventative maintenance is definitely
something we need to re-think prior to the next Project. If it is decided to be used we will need to install
definite, measurable performance incentives for both availability and safety. The usage of contactors for
relining of SAG and ballmills along with primary crusher concave change outs proved to be beneficial
from an expertise point of view, but again performance incentives are a must.

One of the major success stories throughout varying phases of the Project was the interaction and
respect between AMEC, CDA, Project, and Commissioning teams. Each team had their own priorities and
commitment dates for the Project, but all teams understood “Doing what is Right” was the ultimate priority
and requirement.

Integrating Teck engineers from other Operations with the Chilean Concentrator supervisors
during start-up, proved to be an exceptional plan. The knowledge gained by both groups proved to be a
rewarding experience them and the mentors assigned to the Project. It is worth noting all CDA
Concentrator supervisors during pre-commissioning, commissioning, and ramp-up were engineers.

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