PA Engineering consolidates its presence in Peru at the end of 2020 with the opening of an office. After months of coordinated work between Santiago and Lima, PA Engineering Peru assumes the responsibility of developing the construction management for the infrastructure projects necessary for the development of Minera Las Bambas.

The work focused on the construction management of multidisciplinary projects in civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, field control and supervision, occupational health and safety, quality management and commissioning.

Las Bambas is a mining deposit that produces copper and molybdenum concentrate; however, the mining company expects that the development of the Chalcobamba deposit will increase production at Las Bambas from 380,000 to 400,000 tons of copper concentrate per year in the medium term. Also, with the start of operations of the new pit, the company plans to expand the capacity of the processing plant from 145,000 tons per day to 152,250 tons per day.

Advanced basic engineering was developed in different disciplines to incorporate fire protection systems in ore transport and handling belts and the Solvent Extraction and Electro-winning plants, using the BIM and AWP Methodologies.

It should be noted that PA Engineering to develop this project used internal BIM procedures that were the basis for obtaining the International Certification in Information Management for BIM projects ISO 19650-1/2, which was awarded by AENOR in 2022 after successfully passing the evaluation and thus consolidating a leap in quality in the information management processes.

Thanks to the characteristics of the 3D design software that was selected to facilitate collaborative work and the application of methodology, it was possible during the execution of the project to have the data related to each other, which allowed the possibility of modifying elements or part of the project and that these were published for all those involved, thus updating the project information, i.e. 2D and 3D models (plans, listings, reports, etc.). 

In this way, the administration of the project was streamlined and there was a greater control of the information, being able to detect early design errors, interferences between disciplines, facilitate the construction interpretation, analysis of safety and maintainability aspects, the updating of cubic and drawings is achieved instantly, it was the main form of communication both internally and with the client, among other benefits. By performing the work under these conditions, it was possible to obtain a 3D model of the project with a degree of detail and characteristics representative of the stages of review with the client.

This will represent a benefit in the execution stage of the project, since the progress control and the solution of constructive interferences were analysed early, thus achieving the essential objective of the methodology, since the use of BIM must go beyond the design phases, it must necessarily extend throughout the life cycle of the asset, allowing the management of this with the objective of lowering costs in the construction and operation stages. 

COPEC has a plant for the reception, storage and dispatch of clean products (diesel, kerosene, gasoline). The project involved the construction of a new 10,000 m3 diesel storage tank.

Minera Exar, an Argentine company formed by Lithium Americas Corp. (49%) and Ganfeng Lithium (51%), is engaged in the development and production of lithium in the Cauchari Olaroz Salar. In 2019, the mining company started the expansion of its lithium carbonate plant, with the intention of adding 15,000 ton/year to the current 25,000 ton/year. In addition, the project contemplated nine new evaporation basins, which would be added to the three existing ones.

Tenova, a global provider of advanced technologies, products and engineering services for the mining industry, asked PA Engineering to develop the mechanical and piping, structural, electrical and instrumentation and control detail engineering, including 3D models, of the SX plant for the construction and erection of the new facilities.

Although the pandemic context affected the pace of construction, given that the percentage of people was reduced to adapt to the sanitary measures in force, progress continued, and the plant was inaugurated at the end of 2024.

In recent years, the gradual decrease of available oxide resources and the increase of primary and secondary sulphide ores in the Radomiro Tomic division have impacted the results of the leaching process, which has been reflected in the decrease of copper recovery. This situation has driven the generation of projects with competitive technologies and alternatives to the conventional ones (crushing – milling – flotation), to improve these results.

In this context, the idea of implementing chloride leaching of sulphides with temperature and generating the necessary information that allows Codelco to validate the incorporation of this competitive technology at industrial level arises.

The scope of the project went from the trade off stage to the development of the feasibility stage with specification of equipment for procurement and formulation of technical bases for contract bidding.

In the trade off stage, the objective was to identify and evaluate alternatives for a demonstration plant to carry out a chloride leaching test with temperature, applied to the Radomiro Tomic Division ores, and to recommend the best option. To achieve this, PA Engineering conducted four trades off studies, which had the following objectives: location selection, determine the best alternative for heap heating, determine the best option for power supply to the heating system and select the best alternative for ore preparation and loading under the conditions required to use the chloride leaching technology with temperature.

In the feasibility stage, the work performed by PA Engineering considered the development of the engineering according to Codelco’s standards for a feasibility stage, using the BIM methodology, where all the designs proposed in the first stage and the documentation of the chapters of Codelco’s investment system were developed. During this phase, specifications were developed for the purchase of the main equipment and technical bases for the investment and operation stage contracts.

The advances made in Chile in recent years in chloride leaching of copper, have allowed an important development of projects, where the benefits of higher extraction, faster kinetics and lower consumption of sulfuric acid for secondary sulphide’s, led the Radomiro Tomic Division (DRT) to request PA Engineering a study to develop and identify the modifications needed for the early addition of chloride to a Primary Leaching process.

For the development of this engineering, the business plan and the characteristics of the ore that will enter the plant in 2024 were considered, which projects a decrease in the solubility of copper, so it is necessary to develop this study to review the incorporation of chloride in the short term and thus improve the projected recovery of copper.

Given the above, PA Engineering performed the engineering to design the chloride addition system in the form of brine and a preliminary diagnosis to determine the maximum chloride concentration at which it can operate in the hydrometallurgical plant of DRT, indicating the materiality changes required in the equipment and piping in the hydrometallurgical plant, due to the projected corrosive conditions.

Codelco’s Andina Division began operations in the late 1960’s, with the exploitation of the Rio Blanco deposit, through underground mining and, later, adding to its operations the open pit exploitation of the Sur Sur and Don Luis mines.

In November 1993, Codelco voluntarily submitted the Long-Term Tailing Disposal System Project, Ovejería Dam Project, to the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA).

Codelco selected the Ovejería estate in the Til Til valley to build the dam to deposit its tailing because it had advantages such as: its isolation; its clay characteristics; the size of the basin, which has the capacity to store the tailing that the Andina Division will produce over the next 160 years; and the security represented by the 16-meter-high starting wall of compacted sand, which is impermeable.

The great engineering work involved the construction of 83 kilometers of reinforced concrete channels in 5 years, which has been in operation since December 1999 and carries the tailing to the Ovejería dam through the Tailing Transportation System (STR).

Within the framework of this Andina’s mega-project, PA Engineering carried out the Piuquenes Dam Closure Plan, the basic engineering that considered the removal of 25 MM/ton of tailing plus 8 MM/ton of dam walls; the necessary works for the execution of the Piuquenes dam repulping with the hydraulic removal method by pitoning, to then treat and pump this flow to the tailing chute of the STR.

In addition, for this project PA Engineering designed in 3D with BIM methodology in all disciplines. In this way, the administration was streamlined and there was greater control of the information, being able to visualize and optimize the design, interference’s between disciplines, updating of cubic meters and drawings.

A “Grass Root” project was developed in a plant producing 120,000 tonnes per year of adhesive resins for wood panels. The project included the installation of four reactors to produce resins and a plant of 35,000 (tons/year) of formaldehyde, plus all the auxiliary systems for its operation, such as: compressed air system, steam boilers, cooling water system, RILES treatment plant, storage of raw materials and products, electrical systems, etc.  instrumentation and control, etc.

This project passed all the regulations and certifications required by the German environmental, safety and TUV quality certification bodies.

COPEC has a base and blending reception plant to produce lubricating oils in Quintero, so the objective of this project was to expand the plant’s storage capacity, through the installation and interconnection of three new tanks of 1,000 m3 each.

On September 1, 2010, Codelco’s Board of Directors at the time decided to create the Ministro Hales Division, the youngest of the Corporation, to increase the value of the state-owned company through the exploitation and processing of minerals from the deposit, originally known as Mansa Mina.

The project, led by Codelco’s Corporate Vice-Presidency, included the realization of the mine area, material removal and construction of the open pit mine; the infrastructure, where the facilities for maintenance services and the administration and engineering facilities would be located; the concentrator plant, with the processes of primary crushing, belt transport, stockpiling, milling and flotation; and the roasting plant.   

PA Engineering, together with Echeverría Izquierdo, presented a project for the EPC engineering and construction of two lime milk plants for the new Ministro Hales Division, one to feed the grinding plant for the flotation process and the other for the neutralization of effluents in the roasting plant. The proposal included Project management, engineering, procurement of equipment (including offshore fabrication inspection) and materials, project management, site engineering and construction technical support, commissioning and start-up of the two units.

The project was developed between 2012 and 2013, for two storage silos (750 ton) and lime milk preparation systems (8.6 ton/h) equipped with the largest slakers available in the industry (12 t7h) for the Concentrator and Roasting plants. In addition, the interconnection of services to the slurry preparation systems was made from the existing grate to each of the respective systems.

Finally, connections were made to the concentrator and roasting electrical room (subway duct bank) and connections to the concentrator and roasting control room (signal repeater via fiber optics, subway duct bank).

On January 5, 2016, the open pit mine was officially inaugurated, located at an altitude of 2,600 meters and almost 10 kilometres north of Calama along the road that connects this city with Chuquicamata. It is currently one of the most modern copper production complexes in the country and produces copper calcine, copper concentrate and silver.

According to Codelco’s website, the hallmark of Ministro Hales is determined using technology and innovation in its processes, with an operation that respects environmental regulations and is in permanent contact with the communities. In 2020 it produced 170,606 metric tons of fine copper and 260,981 kilos of silver.

Built by Geotérmica del Norte – GDN, a joint venture between Enel Green Power Chile and ENAP, the plant, which uses high-enthalpy binary cycle technology, is the only geothermal plant in operation in South America and the highest of its kind in the world, as it is located at 4,500 meters above sea level.

This plant has two units with a installed capacity of 24 MW each for a total capacity of 48 MW and Enel is currently developing part 3 of the project, which is the installation of a third unit. In full operation, Cerro Pabellón is expected to be capable of producing around 340 GWh per year, which is equivalent to the annual consumption needs of more than 165,000 Chilean households, avoiding the emission of more than 166,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

PA Engineering developed the Gathering System Detail Engineering of Cerro Pabellón 3, with scope of the structural, electrical and instrumental civil disciplines and control. The third unit is expected to come into operation in 2021, as reported by Enel Greenpower on its website.

BHP’s Cerro Colorado Mining Company (CMCC) is an open-pit copper mine, which had a dewatering system that worked with submersible pumps, which propel the water to two pools, from where and through other pumps, cistern trucks were loaded for the irrigation of internal roads of the mine and the surplus water was transported to the plant’s water reservoir.

After several studies, CMCC decided to install a continuous pumping system with multistage centrifugal pumps to the reservoir.

PA Engineering developed advanced basic engineering in the specialties of processes, civil/structural, mechanical/piping, electricity, and instrumentation and control for the design of the project, which considered the implementation of a 50 l/s water extraction system with submersible pumps continuously from shallow wells at points near the loading faces.

The water extracted from the bottom of the mine is stored in small pools a slightly higher level and then pumped with multistage centrifugal pumps to the Reservoir, which also have a system for filling cistern trucks for the irrigation of roads.

The power supply for the equipment will be carried out through Generator Sets or power line from fixed substation transformers.