Project Description
Context of the project
Located in the Atacama Desert, 800 km north of Santiago, the Candelaria mine needs a second tailings management facility to continue operating for the 15 more years.
Description of the project
The overall project consists of constructing the 690ha fleet, intended to store 690million tonnes of sludge, produced as a result of the copper extraction process. The project includes a system for intercepting and draining filtration water below the containment dams.
Our solution
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Downstream of the central dike, an 800 mm thick plastic concrete cut-off wall and a 1,000 mm thick drain wall were built to a depth of 25 m (the deepest drain wall ever built by Soletanche Bachy).
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At the base of the south embankment, a slab 850 m long and 3 m wide was laid on the mountainside to create a sealing curtain made up of more than 40 kilometres of grouted drill holes.
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Finally, in partnership with Bessac, a specialist subsidiary of Soletanche Bachy, a microtunnel 358 m long and 1,200 mm in internal diameter was dug under the central dike to drain the filtration water from the reservoir and enable it to be reused in the copper concentration and residue transport processes.
Type of project:
Mines
Location:
Subsidiaries of Soletanche Bachy:
Project owner:
Lundin Mining – CCMC
Prime contractor:
Main contractor:
Works period:
08/2016 – 09/2017
Types of techniques :
Cut-off walls
Microtunneling
Key figures of the project
