Antamina, the largest copper and zinc mine in Peru, has enacted a full safety shutdown following an incident that resulted in the death of a senior manager and injuries to another employee.
The company confirmed the accident occurred at its Yanacancha camp in Huari, Ancash, while the employees were on duty.
Antamina Mining Company said in a statement: “This is a difficult time for those of us at Compañía Minera Antamina. We regret to inform you that, due to an accident, Mr. Edwin Colque Calisaya, our senior operations manager, died, and another colleague from the same area, Yorhinio León Robles, drilling and blasting superintendent, was injured.”
The company is investigating the cause of the accident and has reached out to the families of the workers involved to offer support.
Antamina is located in the Andes mountain range, 270km north of Lima in Peru. The deposit stands at an average elevation of 4.2km.
The mine is an open-pit, truck-and-shovel operation, featuring a 302km slurry pipeline that moves copper and zinc concentrates to the port for global shipment to smelters and refineries.
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By GlobalDataAntamina is jointly owned by BHP (33.75%), Glencore (33.75%), Teck Resources (22.5%) and Mitsubishi Corporation (10%).
The mine’s current operating capacity is 145,000 tonnes per day. The measured and indicated resources, including proven and probable reserves, amount to 863 million tonnes (mt) grading 0.87% copper, 0.60% zinc, 11 grams per tonne silver and 0.02% molybdenum.
In February 2024, Peru’s environment watchdog granted Antamina a permit enabling a $2bn (7.4bn new sol) expansion to extend the operation’s production from 2028 to 2036.
