Due to poorer-than-anticipated recovery in the leaching circuit, Phelps Dodge (PDn-N) plans to curtail production at the Chino copper operation in New Mexico.
The move will lower annual production at Chino by about 35 million lbs.
copper, or about 10%. The company will also scale back throughput to 300,000 tons of ore and waste per day, down from 430,000 tons per day, and will lay off 94 employees.
In 1997, Phelps Dodge produced 338 million lbs. copper from Chino; 200 million lbs. came from the concentrator and smelter, while the solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plant plated out 138 million lbs. of the red metal. This year, the company plans to decrease production from the SX-EW plant by an undisclosed amount.
The mine contains 319 million tons of ore that is suitable for milling at a grade of 0.62% copper, plus 521 million tons of leachable ore grading 0.3% copper.
Concentrator and smelter capacity will not be affected by the curtailment at Chino, nor will production at the Continental copper mine, situated 3 miles away. Phelps Dodge acquired the latter operation from Cobre Mining in February.
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