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Los Bronces Mine
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| Service: | Dr. Sauer & Partners provided conceptual design and basic engineering.
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| Estimated cost: | Commencement: | August 01, 2009
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Completion date: | November 01, 2011
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| Location: | Los Andes Valparaíso Chile |
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| Geology description: | The geological setting is dominated by the volcanic activities of the region and includes magmatic rocks such as monzonite, andesite, and dacite. |
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| Bid cost: | Final cost: | $6 million USD
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Description
Los Bronces copper mine, an open-pit operation at an altitude of 3500m ASL in the Chilean Andes, planned to utilise a tunnel for further deposit exploration and development. The project consisted of an 8.2km tunnel link between Los Bronces and Confluencia, connecting two processing plants. By applying drill and blast methods, a chamber was prepared to launch a 4.5m diameter tunnel boring machine which took over further excavation. A difficult geological and hydrological setting, extreme weather conditions as well as the high altitude and the rough terrain, provided a challenging environment.
