As the project was in the construction phase, with part of the detailed engineering already developed and completed, Pares&Alvarez was tasked with carrying out the detailed engineering work to complement the engineering already developed by Codelco.

Among the activities carried out, we can mention the engineering for the temporary shutdown of Contact Plants No. 2, 3, and 4, the engineering for the cooling water filtration system, and the reactive power study, among others. Projects developed using Smart Plant 3D (SP3D) software.

During 2020, the Chuquicamata Smelter focused on consolidating its operations under the new environmental standards following the launch of the investment projects. In terms of results, according to Codelco’s 2020 Annual Report, the smelter achieved a capture rate of 97.2% for arsenic emissions and 97.7% for sulfur emissions, meeting the 95% requirement set by the Supreme Decree.

The project was carried out under an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contract, which included the design and construction of a chemical plant for the treatment of a ferrous chloride solution as part of the molybdenum purification process at Minera Los Pelambres.

Codelco developed the MOLYB project in Mejillones, Antofagasta Region, to add value to its molybdenum concentrates and produce commercial-grade molybdenum oxides within Chile. The project responded to growing global demand for high-purity molybdenum products used in steel, electronics, automotive, aerospace, and other industries. The industrial complex includes a chemical-metallurgical plant whose chlorination subproject required robust multidisciplinary engineering, risk analysis, and strong site support to ensure safe construction, commissioning, and long-term operation.

The Dewatered Hydraulic Stacking (HDS) project at Anglo American’s El Soldado operation introduces an innovative tailings disposal system designed to significantly reduce water consumption and enhance operational safety. The technology enables up to approximately 80% water recovery directly from the tailings, while improving surface compaction, stability, and environmental remediation performance. Implemented under Anglo American’s FutureSmart Mining™ framework, the project positions El Soldado as a global innovation hub for sustainable tailings management solutions.

The Talabre Dam, located in the Chuquicamata mining district, is currently in operation in its Stage VIII of growth, with a final capacity of 1,451 Mm3. The operation of the dam includes the gradual growth of the perimeter walls, which are designed to the highest standards to meet the demand for tailings storage. An upcoming expansion of the perimeter walls called Construction IX stage Talabre dam is projected, which will operate until 2030, reaching a final capacity of 1,771 Mm3.

Through a tender, Codelco’s Vice Presidency has awarded PA Engineering the development of the detailed engineering for several systems of the Construction IX Phase Talabre Dam project. These include the Tailings Conduction and Deposit System, the Water Recovery and Recirculation System, the Hydraulic Barrier, the Electric Supply, and the Centralized Monitoring and Control. The designs are being carried out using BIM and Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) methodologies.

This project foresees an increase of 320 million cubic meters in the tailings storage capacity of the Ministro Hales and Chuquicamata divisions, which will imply the growth of the perimeter walls of the Talabre Dam, raising the level from 2496 meters above sea level to 2500 meters above sea level.

The Project consisted of modifying the infrastructure in the plant to introduce a leaching process with high chlorine content, using the Cuprochlor® technology, which Antofagasta Minerals has been using for some years, allowing to improve the recovery of sulphide minerals that exist in the deposit and that are part of its base case. These sulphide, by the conventional leaching method in an acid medium, reach an average recovery between the ranges of 50% to 55%; With this technology, it is projected to reach values in ranges above 70%.

In 2014, Minera Centinela, an operation of Antofagasta Minerals, was faced with the need to eliminate one of the bottlenecks that prevented its concentrator from operating at nominal capacity, i.e., 100 thousand tons per day.

The proposed solution was to carry out an EPC project to build a secondary and tertiary crushing plant in parallel to the existing line, so that it will process the difference of approximately 20 thousand tons per day and will feed directly to the ball mills that have the available grinding capacity.

Within this EPC, PA Engineering performed the construction management, part of the engineering and the supply of the related materials and equipment. The scope of the engineering included the complete civil works of the project, the piping engineering, including the fire protection network, the piping and the electrical, instrumentation and control interconnection, as well as the processing of sectorial permits.

During 2015, this project came into operation, which allowed the concentrator plant to reach its design capacity.

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. 

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.