The Toquepala mine is a large porphyry copper mine

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 in the Tacna Province, Tacna Department, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

. The mine is an open-pit mine producing copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

, molybdenum

Molybdenum

Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...

, rhenium

Rhenium

Rhenium is a chemical element with the symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-white, heavy, third-row transition metal in group 7 of the periodic table. With an average concentration of 1 part per billion , rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust. The free element has...

 and silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 with minor gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 and zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

.

The Toquepala mine and the Ilo

Ilo

Ilo is a port city in southern Peru, with some 58,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the Moquegua Region and capital of the province of Ilo.-History:...

 smelter were opened in 1960 by Southern Peru Copper Corporation, then a subsidiary of ASARCO

ASARCO

ASARCO LLC is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona that mines and processes primarily copper. The company, a subsidiary of Grupo México, is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

. A Solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) facility was added in 1995. ASARCO's stake in Southern Peru Copper, now 54.2 percent, passed to Grupo Mexico, when that company purchased ASARCO in 1999. The mine and smelter are now operated by Southern Copper Corporation

Southern Copper Corporation

Southern Copper Corporation is a mining company originally founded in 1952. The current incarnation Southern Copper can be traced to the 2005 acquisition of Mexican copper producer Minera México by Southern Peru Copper Corporation....

, a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico.

In 2009, Toquepala produced about 127,000 tons of copper in sulfide

Sulfide mineral

The sulfide minerals are a class of minerals containing sulfide as the major anion. Some sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, the arsenides, the antimonides, the bismuthinides, the sulfarsenides and the sulfosalts...

 concentrates

Ore concentrate

Ore concentrate, dressed ore or simply concentrate is the product generally produced by metal ore mines. The raw ore is usually ground finely in various comminution operations and gangue is removed, thus concentrating the metal component. The concentrate is then transported to smelters where it is...

, all smelted at Ilo, with a copper recovery of 97.4%. Toquepala also produced 38,000 tons of copper cathode

Cathode

A cathode is an electrode through which electric current flows out of a polarized electrical device. Mnemonic: CCD .Cathode polarity is not always negative...

s from the SX/EW plant.

As of the end of 2009, Toquepala reported about 13 million tons of copper contained in proven and probable ore reserves, at an average grade of 0.47% Cu. The projected stripping ratio

Stripping ratio

In mining, stripping ratio or strip ratio refers to the ratio of the volume of overburden required to be removed to the volume of ore recovered...

 for this ore is about 2.6:1.

External links

• Toquepala mine and plant, at Southern Copper Corporation
  Southern Copper Corporation
  Southern Copper Corporation is a mining company originally founded in 1952. The current incarnation Southern Copper can be traced to the 2005 acquisition of Mexican copper producer Minera México by Southern Peru Copper Corporation....
  
  
• SPCC company history
• Peru's Largest Mining Company, March 2009