Anglo American is set to boost throughput at its Quellaveco copper mine in Peru, the company announced in its half-year results press release today.
The mine, a conventional truck and shovel operation, had an original plant throughput of 127,500 t/d with plans to produce, on average, circa-300,000 t/y of copper in its first 10 years of operation.
In the latter part of 2023, a revised mine plan was put into place due to a localised geotechnical fault. The stripping and mine development work is progressing well, with other lower grade phases being mined and opened up to increase the flexibility in the mine. After five years of operating, maintenance will be carried out on the concentrator, including the mills and conveyors; this is expected to occur in 2027 and 2028, modestly impacting production in those years.
Anglo American says there is significant expansion potential that could sustain production beyond the initial high-grade area.
A change in legislation in the middle of 2024 increased the permit allowance from 5% to 10%, enabling throughput to increase from 133,800 t/d to around 140,000 t/d. In order to maximise throughput within the parameters of the current Environmental Impact Assessment permit, a rapid permit to increase throughput to 150,000 t/d plus the 10% allowance was obtained in 2025. This provides added flexibility to design optimal throughput for the plant with limited configuration changes, subject to sectorial permits associated with the specific design and water availability.
In light of this, the stage one expansion has been approved and will increase throughput to around 142,000 t/d by late 2026, involving the installation of a second pebble crusher and additional flotation cells. This project represents the first stage to full optimisation of the plant with minimal capital investment, delivering robust returns, Anglo American says.
Efforts will continue to further debottleneck the plant, while conducting early studies to support Quellaveco’s long-term expansion prospects, underpinned by an exploration drilling campaign below and around the current pit shell, which to date has yielded promising results.
The mine, 60% owned by Anglo American and 40% owned by Mitsubishi Corporation, produced 156,600 t of copper in the first half of 2025.
Commissioned in 2022, the Quellaveco copper mine is the largest greenfield copper mine developed by Anglo American. By deploying new technologies such as autonomous trucks, automated drilling and remote operation, Anglo American put its FutureSmart Mining™ approach into action at the operation.
