Dyno Nobel was recently part of the largest blast ever performed at the Caserones copper-molybdenum mine and the third largest ever in Chile. The products used in the blast were TITAN DIFFERENTIAL ENERGY bulk emulsion and the DigiShot Plus 4G initiation system. Some 3 Mt of material were successfully blasted.
Lundin Mining Corporation is now the majority owner and operator of Caserones after acquiring 51% of the operating company SCM Minera Lumina Copper Chile earlier this year from JX Nippon Mining & Metals, with the Japanese firm retaining a 49% stake.
With the objective of bringing its DIFFERENTIAL ENERGY technology to the Chilean market, in 2019 Dyno Nobel Explosivos Chile (DNEC)completed an emulsion plant in Coquimbo in Chile’s Fourth Region which started operations in March 2020 with production and sales of its TITAN 1000ΔE and TITAN 5000ΔE explosives for open pit mines followed by the manufacture of TITAN 7000 RU to meet the needs of underground operations. This facility built on Dyno’s first plant in Chile which was set up in 2010, also in Coquimbo, under the name Planta Austral. This facility is for assembly of non-electric detonators (NONEL) and electric detonators (DigiShot Plus). DNEC’s head office is located in the Chilean capital, Santiago.
The Caserones open-pit operation uses 33 haul trucks loaded by a combination of two electric rope shovels, two hydraulic shovels and two large front-end loaders. The process plant consists of a conventional crush, grind and flotation processing with a nominal capacity of 105,000 t/d, producing both copper in concentrates and molybdenum in concentrates, as well as a solvent extraction and electrowinning plant and leaching facilities for processing oxide and low-grade sulphide ore with a production capacity of 34,500 t/y of cathode. In 2022, the concentrator plant produced 109,100 t of copper in concentrate. In addition, 15,001 t of copper cathodes and 3,100 t of molybdenum in concentrate was produced.
