PW06 Life-Cycle Assessment
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Wednesday
(PW082) Life cycle inventory at copper mining company in Chile.
Torres, J1, Velasco, M1, del Canto, S1, 1 Instituto de Innovación en Mineria y Metalurgia, IM2, Santiago, Chile
ABSTRACT- Codelco Chile is a major world producer of fine copper and molybdenum concentrates, with operations based on 4 mining divisions, each of which includes one or more mines, all located in Chile. Its main products are copper concentrate, fire refined copper, copper cathode and molybdenum concentrate. Its raw materials are copper sulfide ore, which contains molybdenum, and copper oxide ore, which are processed by two different technologies: hydrometallurgy (oxides) and pyrometallurgy (sulfides). If the mine source and process type are taken into account, a total of 15 different Codelco products may be distinguished. The general objective of this study is to carry out a cradle to gate life cycle inventory for each of the 15 products for the 2003 production. The study is underway since November 2003 and scheduled to be completed by March 2005. The diversity of products and operations, all located in one country but in different geographical regions, provides a complex inventory setting as well as a potentially valuable wealth of information not readily available for this type of industry so far. Inventory design decisions are shown and discussed, including: process stage modeling, cut-off criteria, coproduct allocation, data categories and quality, as well as input and output data collection strategy. Some preliminary results are also presented.
Key words: copper mining, life cycle inventory, Chile, Codelco