Chile copper mine near quake to restart soon

OREANDA-NEWS. September 18, 2015. Chile Antofagasta Minerals plans to gradually restart its Los Pelambres copper mine today following a major earthquake yesterday evening.

"The operations of Minera Los Pelambras remain suspended and it is expected they will resume gradually within the coming hours," the company said today.

Installations including Punta Chungo port and the El Mauro tailings site suffered no major damage but all facilities are undergoing detailed inspection, the company added.

An 8.4-magnitude quake occurred at 19:56 local time yesterday in the Coquimbo region north of Santiago where the mine is located.

State-owned mining company Codelco has suspended operations at its Andina division until any mine damage can be assessed in the light of day, the company said this morning. Ventanas division operations have resumed following a preventive suspension yesterday. The Northern, Salvador and El Teniente units are operating normally.

Australian BHP Billiton?s mining operations, including the giant Escondida mine, have not been affected, the company says.

The LNG terminal at Quintero on the central coast suffered no damage and is operating normally.

Chile?s state-run oil company Enap has suspended some units of its 104,000 b/d Aconcagua refinery in Concon.

Industrial operations are routinely suspended and ships ordered out to sea as preventive measures during earthquakes here.

Chilean authorities gradually lifted a nationwide tsunami alert and coastal evacuation order overnight. The quake has been followed by ongoing aftershocks.

The quake epicenter was 42km west of Canela Baja in the Coquimbo region but the shock was felt as far away as Argentina.

Quake-prone Chile has strict construction codes, and most industrial installations appear to have been largely unaffected, although there are electricity and municipal water outages, residential and commercial damage and rock slides. At least eight people have died.

An 8.8-magnitude quake that struck south-central Chile in February 2010 was followed by a tsunami that caused extensive damage and around 500 deaths.