El Teniente, Chile

Pioneering mass caving at

El Teniente
Mining in primary
rock
One of the five mining divisions of
the Corporación Nacional del Cobre
de Chile, Codelco, El Teniente is an
integrated copper operation com-
prising mine, concentrator and
smelter installations. Faced with
the depletion of its reserves of
high-grade secondary mineraliza-
tion, the division has completed
the change to mining in primary
rock. The early years were trauma-
tic, with major geotechnical prob-
lems including a series of fatal
rockbursts and the collapse of
significant areas of the production
levels. However, El Teniente rose
to the challenge and, following
an extended period of study and
trial mining, is successfully using a
variation of the Panel Caving me-
thod in the new Esmeralda Sector.
This method is now being applied
to future development plans for
the New Mine Level project, which Isometric representation of El Teniente mining sectors.
starts production in 2014.
geological exploration and different geological resource at El Teniente above
associations in new business. 1,720 m asl is over 10 billion t at 0.65%
Largest copper producer The company’s vision of the future copper, and the mining reserves above
aims to consolidate its leadership of the 1,980 m asl and 0.6% copper cut-off
Owned by the Chilean state, Codelco world copper industry in terms of com- grade are over 3 billion t at 1.0% cop-
is the world’s largest copper producer. petitiveness and operating excellence, per. El Teniente produces anodes, re-
It produces more than 1.5 million met- thus reinforcing its position in the global fined copper, electro-won cathodes and
ric fine tonnes (mft) of copper/year, economy. In line with this, Codelco set molybdenum concentrate, all of which
representing 16% of western world pro- itself the goal of doubling its value to is shipped out through the Port of San
duction. In addition, Codelco is the world’s some US$18 billion by 2006, through Antonio.
second largest molybdenum producer, higher productivity, market develop- Currently, El Teniente Division em-
with an output of around 25,000 t/y. The ment and synergies. Achieving this de- ploys 5,219 workers, a decrease of 22%
corporation's other competitive strengths pended, amongst other factors, on the from the 6,652 it employed in 1996.
are its cost efficiency of around 40 US successful and opportune implementa- During the same period, the total acci-
cents/pound and its reserves, which com- tion of the US$4.3 billion investment dent rate was reduced over 50%, while
prise about 21% of the world's total, and contemplated in the company six-year the cost of production was reduced by
are sufficient for more than 70 years of strategic plan. more than 10 US cents/pound. In terms
mining at current production levels. of productivity, each employee currently
Codelco operates five mining divi- El Teniente achieves 71 t/y of copper, an increase of
sions at Chuquicamata, Radomiro Tomic, 25% since 1996.
Salvador, Andina and El Teniente, and El Teniente is the world’s largest under-
a service division located at Talleres ground mine, with over 2,400 km of History
Rancagua. It also participates in other development to date. The mine is loca-
mines, including El Abra, and also ted at 2,200 m asl, some 80 km south of According to legend, El Teniente was
has several joint ventures involved in the capital city of Santiago. The total discovered by a fugitive Spanish official

underground mining methods 83

 El Teniente, Chile

Traditional block caving layout.

in the 1800s. Exploitation first began in formed around a central, barren, brec- underground, each sector being, in effect,
1819, when the highest-grade minerals, cia pipe of 1.0 to 1.2 km diameter, sur- a large mine in its own right. This case
from what became the Fortuna sector, rounded by a mineralized rock mass. story focuses on the Esmeralda Sector,
were mined manually and transported on The bulk of the mineralization within which is set to become the most impor-
animals to the coast. In 1904, William the orebody is typical of massive, homo- tant section of the mine, producing
Braden, an American engineer, founded geneous copper porphyries. In fact, El 45,000 t of the 130,000 t/day planned
the first El Teniente company, Braden Teniente is one of the largest porphyry for El Teniente.
Copper Company, and built a road for deposits of copper in the world. The main Since El Teniente began operations
carts and a concentration plant. rock types of the deposit are: andesite in the early 1900s, several exploitation
In 1916, Braden Copper became a sub- 73%, diorite 12%, dacite 9% and breccia methods have been used, though the se-
sidiary of the Kennecott Corporation, 6%. At some time during its history, condary mineralization was ideally sui-
which was able to supply the funds nec- the deposit was affected by supergene ted to conventional block caving.
essary to expand the mine. Kennecott alteration through percolation of mete- However, the last mining sector lo-
operated El Teniente until 1971. In April, orological water close to surface, which cated in secondary ore, Quebrada
1967 the Chilean Government acquired gave rise to secondary mineralization. Teniente, was exhausted in 2003, and
a 51% interest in the property, and foun- This secondary ore is high in copper all current mining is in primary ore
ded the Sociedad Minera El Teniente. grade, but weak, and of good fragmen- for processing at the expanded Colón
Following this agreement, major mine tation and caveability. In contrast, the concentrator.
expansion was undertaken, and a new deeper primary mineralization is rela- El Teniente started large-scale mi-
concentration plant was built in Colón, tively low in copper grade, harder, and ning of the primary ore in 1982, using
which increased total production capac- of moderate fragmentation and cavea- LHDs and the fully mechanized panel
ity to 63,000 t/day. Full nationalization bility. As can be appreciated, secondary caving method. The essential difference
followed in 1971, and El Teniente mine ore and primary ore require very differ- between panel caving and conventional
became a fully state-owned company. ent approaches in terms of mining. block caving is that the former is a dy-
In 1976 Codelco was formed, and El namic method in which the undercut is
Teniente became part of it. Mining method being continuously developed, and
drawpoints incorporated at the extrac-
Reserves El Teniente produces some 334,000 t fine tion front, rather than being fully de-
copper and 4,720 t molybdenum each veloped before caving is started. This
In total, the El Teniente orebody meas- year. Mass caving methods are employed method has been broadly successful at
ures 2.8 km-long, 1.9 km-wide, and 1.8 to deliver approximately 98,000 t/day El Teniente, and close to 250 million t
km-deep. Schematically, the deposit is of ore to the mill from several sectors of ore have been extracted using panel

84 underground mining methods

 El Teniente, Chile

caving in primary rock. Currently, two

forms of panel caving are in use: stan-
dard panel caving as applied in the
Teniente 4 Sur Sector; and panel
caving with pre-undercut as used in the
Esmeralda Sector.

Exploitation sequence
The panel caving exploitation sequence
initially used involved development
and construction of production levels,
undercutting at the undercut level, and
ore extraction. However, the dynamic
caving fronts, under high stress condi-
tions of 40-60 Mpa, resulted in sub-
stantial damage to the infrastructure.
Indeed, extraction in El Teniente Sub
6 Sector had to be stopped in March,
1992 after several rockbursts caused
fatal accidents, reflecting the low level
of knowledge at the time about mining
in primary rock.
Between June, 1994 and August, 1997,
El Teniente carried out experimental
mining in a pilot area of 12,000 sq m.
This process was closely monitored, and
the data served as the basis for a full
geomechanical study. From September,
1997 to June, 1998, during the pre-
operational phase, it was realized that
it was necessary to research the rela-
tionship between seismic potential,
undercutting speed and the mining of Panel caving with pre-undercut at Esmeralda.
new areas. Because of this, and for the
first time since the 1992 production Esmeralda pre-undercut on the west by the Braden breccia pipe,
freeze, El Teniente carried out prepara- and in the north by El Teniente Sub 6
tory work in a 6,000 sq m area using Following on from the studies and con- Sector, and is below the Teniente 4 Sur
simultaneous production techniques. trolled tests, El Teniente introduced a Sector. Lithologically, it occurs mainly
The test succeeded, with no significant variation of its conventional panel ca- in andesite, and contains a total mineral
rockbursts, thus proving the relation- ving undercut sequence. Known as reserve of 365 million t, with an average
ship between seismicity and caving pre-undercut, it essentially consists of grade of 1.01% of copper and 0.024%
speed. Indeed, it is now recognized that developing the production level behind of molybdenum. The total investment
the uncontrolled seismicity induced by the undercut, rather than the more for Esmeralda was US$205.6 million,
the mining extraction rate of advance typical method where the production with conceptual engineering and design
of the caving face and extraction speed development is carried in parallel with initiated in 1992, and caving starting in
has been the main cause of damage to the undercut ahead of the caving face. August, 1996. Ore production started in
the tunnels and infrastructure on the The pre-undercut achieves a better re- September, 1997, and has built up from
lower levels. distribution of the stresses ahead of the an average of 4,000 t/day in 1998 to
Nowadays, there are variables incor- production development, resulting in 19,500 t/day in 2001, and full produc-
porated into the mining design and plan- less damage and improved safety. tion of 45,000 t/day from 2005.
ning concept to control the excess of Although the pre-undercut variant Caving at Esmeralda was achieved
seismic activity, not only improving the had been tested in some small sectors of with 16,800 sq m of available produc-
working conditions on the production the mine, it was first used on an indus- tion undercut, once a problem of 'sup-
level, but also increasing productivity. trial scale in the new Esmeralda sector. port points' was solved. These formed
During the pre-operational phase, over Occupying a total area of 714,000 sq above the apex of the crown pillar, and
2 million t were removed from Teniente m, Esmeralda is located at 2,210 m asl reduced the interaction between draw-
Sub 6, with only two small rockbursts. within the El Teniente deposit, bounded points, making the flow of ore from

underground mining methods 85

 El Teniente, Chile

Basic concepts
In the conventional panel caving and the
pre-undercut variant, the same basic con-
cepts apply. The main difference is the
sequence of each of the operational ele-
ments. In the conventional panel caving
Standard drill plan with 4 hole-fans method, the sequence of activities is:
development of tunnels on each level
for production and undercut; drawbell
opening; undercut blasting; and extrac-
tion. In the pre-undercut variant, the un-
dercut is excavated first, and the pro-
duction level is developed subsequently
within the stress-relieved zone: devel-
opment of the undercut level; undercut
blasting; development of the production
level; drawbell opening; and extraction.
The main challenge associated with
this variant involved the undercutting.
Several alternatives were tried, with
the current preference being a flat, low
Plan of pre-undercut holes. height 3.6 m undercut. The undercut is
blasted some 80 m ahead of the actual
the undercut level difficult. The effec- through the ore pass and into the loa- production zone, with the production
tive extraction rate defined for the Es- ding bin. On the haulage level, the level and drawbell development follow-
meralda sector was 0.14 to 0.44 t/day/ mineral is loaded into trains featuring ing around 22.5 m behind the undercut,
sq m at the initial caving stage, and Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and and 57.5 m ahead of the production
reached 0.28 to 0.65 t/day/sq m at the consisting of a locomotive with eight 50 zone.
steady-state caving stage. The height t cars. These trains, which were retrofit- The undercut comprises drives, 3.6
of primary ore column to be exploited ted with an Automatic Train Operation m-wide by 3.6 m-high, developed paral-
is around 150 m, relatively low if com- (ATO) system, tip into storage bins lel to each other on 15 m centres. The
pared with Teniente 4 Sur, where the which feed a 5.0 m-diameter orepass excavation of the undercut is achieved by
height is over 240 m. to the main transport level Teniente 8. blasting three- or four-hole fans, some
At Esmeralda, 7 cu yd LHDs work- Trains with 90 t electric locomotives 7 m to 10 m length, drilled into the side-
ing on the production level load and tip and 18 cars each of 80 t capacity carry wall. The drill holes are fanned slightly,
into 3.5 m-diameter ore passes. Here, the mineral out to the Colón concentra- to ensure an undercut height equal to
teleremote controlled hydraulic break- tor. The main haulage level at Teniente the height of the drives. Swell material
ers positioned above 1 m x 1 m grizzlies 8 was recently upgraded, incorporating from each undercut blast is removed by
break any oversize rock before it goes new technology similar to Esmeralda. LHD to provide a free face for the next
blast. The production haulage level is
Drilling patterns in andesite and breccia. developed 18 m below the undercut,
giving a crown pillar thickness of 14.4
m through which the drawbells are then
developed straight into the pre-blasted
undercut. The production level requires
substantial support, with fully grouted
HW FW HW FW 2.3 m rebar installed in a 0.9 m x 1.0
Drill plan with 3 x 3 hole-fans Drill plan with 4 x 4 hole-fans m pattern immediately behind the face,
followed by chain mesh and shotcrete.
Permanent support is added around 15 m
behind the face, and consists of fully
grouted long cable bolts, with additional
reinforcement at drawpoints. One of the
challenges of this method is that two
HW FW HW FW
mining fronts have to be managed, one
on the undercut level, and the other lo-
cated on the production level, and these

86 underground mining methods

 Undercut area
Production El Teniente, Chile
area Preparation area
80 m

57,5 m 22,5 m
spacing mesh, 10 cm-thick shotcrete, and
Undercut area
6 in-diameter cable bolts. There are two
Production types of cable bolts, plain and birdcage,
area
which are 4 m to 10 m-long, and 5 m to
Preparation area
80 m

57,5 m 22,5 m 7 m-long

2
respectively.
1
4
5 3
Raise boring
In an interesting application during the
2 1
development of Esmeralda, two Atlas
4 1. Development Copco Robbins raise boring machines,
5 3
2. Drilling & blasting to start caving a 34RH and a 53RH were used. These
3. Development
4. Open trenches (boxholes + drilling)
are multipurpose machines, and can be
5. Extraction employed for upwards boxhole boring
or down reaming, as well as conven-
1. Development tional raiseboring.
Principle of pre-undercut at Esmeralda.
2. Drilling & blasting
3. Development
to start caving
At Esmeralda, the Robbins 34RH unit
4. Open trenches (boxholes + drilling) was used in the production level to drill
in turn are related to the scheduling
5. Extraction of for sublevel caving. Hence, El Teniente draw bell slot vertical holes approxi-
the development of the drawbells, and is developing its new productive sectors mately 15 m to 20 m-long and 0.7 m-
construction of the drawpoints. using the panel caving method with pre- diameter. The machine worked three
The pre-undercut variant has been a undercut, though other variants could shifts/day, giving a penetration rate of
substantial success in the Esmeralda sec- be used, depending on the local condi- 2.1 m/h. It had a capacity of 93 m/month
tor, with only minimal damage occur- tions, lithology, stresses and economics and a utilization rate of 39%.
ring on the production level, and its of each sector. The Robbins 53RH was employed to
associated orepasses and drawpoints. bore 1.5 m-diameter boxholes up to 75
There was a significant reduction of Production at Esmeralda m-long for use as ventilation shafts, and
damage to the drifts located under the inclined pilot raises for orepasses, with
undercut level, as well as a significant Cave undercutting at Esmeralda is pres- an average length of 24 m. The machine
reduction of rockburst occurrence by ently carried out with the 'parallel long worked three shifts/day, giving a pen-
better draw management. The stability hole' technique, which basically consists etration rate of 1.8 m/hr. It had a capa-
and rock condition with the pre-under- of excavating an 855 cu m pillar of solid city of 111 m/month and a utilization
cut variant dramatically improves, so it rock 11.4 m-wide, 25 m-long and 3 m- rate of 57.3%.
was possible to reduce the cost of sup- high. A triangular pattern of 14 parallel Atlas Copco trained the operators
port, and increase the availability of the long holes of 3 in-diameter, with 9 rows from El Teniente, and was in charge of
area by nearly 90%. of 2 holes and 1 hole each is used. This the equipment maintenance during the
Some optimization of the pre-under- pattern has better efficiency, absorbs first few months.
cut is still continuing, in particular some blast hole deviation, and avoids forma-
fine-tuning of undercut level pillars and tion of residual pillars. Rocket Boomer drill rigs
improvement of the co-ordination and Drilling is carried out with an Atlas
scheduling of the development activi- Copco Simba H157 drill rig, whose out- Shortly after acquiring the raise boring
ties. It is vital that the spacing of the ac- put is 60 m/shift of 3 in-diameter holes machines, El Teniente acquired two
tivities is maintained, so as to keep the and 85 m/shift of 2.5 in-diameter holes. Atlas Copco Rocket Boomer 282 drill
production development ahead of the Standard ANFO is the column charge, rigs for drift development at Esmeralda.
active cave, but still within the destres- with 300 gm cylindrical pentolite as the In order to increase the drilling pre-
sed area. booster, detonated using Nonel. cision, the mine installed the Atlas
Current productivity obtained at Atlas Copco equipment at Esmeralda Copco Feed Angle Measurement (FAM)
Esmeralda is over 115 t/day/worker. In includes one Rocket Boomer, two Boltec instrument on the Rocket Boomer units.
comparison with other methods such as rigs, two Simba rigs and one 3.5 cu yd The machines also featured the direct
sublevel caving, panel caving gives El Scooptram loader. controlled drilling system, which in-
Teniente more advantages. The direct In the production level, a fleet of corporates the anti-jamming function
cost of the sublevel caving method is at nine LHDs is used, including Atlas Rotation Pressure Controlled Feed Force
least double that of panel caving, and Copco Scooptram ST6C and ST1000 (RPCF).
the current direct cost for mine at El loaders of capacities 6 cu yd and 7.3 cu The Rocket Boomer rigs were fitted
Teniente is US$2.5/t of ore, and indirect yd respectively. with COP 1838 rock drills with 20 KW
costs close to US$1/t The support methods used in Es- impact power and dual-damping system,
The average cost of panel caving is meralda include 22 mm-diameter and 2.3 giving high speed drilling and good steel
US$3.5/t, compared to more than US$5/t m-long bolts, 6 mm-diameter by 10 cm economy.

underground mining methods 87

 El Teniente, Chile

Occupying an area of 190,000 sq m,

Reservas Norte/Sector Andesita is lo-
cated north of the Teniente Sub-6
sector. Its reserves are estimated to be
125 million t, with an average grade
of 1.14% copper. Its useful life will
last until 2019, and during operation it
will require a workforce of 280 people.
Construction was started in 2000 for
production commencement in 2003.
Production is planned to reach 35,000 t/
day and, like Esmeralda, Reservas Norte
is being exploited by panel caving with
the pre-undercut variant. Main equip-
ment includes 14 LHDs of 7 cu yd ca-
pacity, 16 plate feeders, eight 80t trucks,
four hydraulic breakers, and five 1,400
HP fans. On the production level, the
LHDs tip into 34 m-long orepasses.
On the haulage level, the 80t trucks,
Undercut drilling to start the caving process.
loaded by plate feeders, empty the min-
eral into four storage bins fitted with
According to Atlas Copco Chilena, and its team provide a central technical large hydraulic breakers and grizzlies.
which delivered the equipment, the and maintenance service to all the sec- One of the objectives of this project
Rocket Boomer units exceeded the ma- tors within El Teniente. Smaller was to automate and remotely control
nagement's expectations, and showed workshops dispersed throughout the the operations of truck haulage, plate
better results in comparison with the complex are used for repair or main- feeder loading, and rock reduction by
other rigs owned by the mine. For in- tenance jobs of less than four hours breakers.
stance, in the development of 4 m x 4 duration. Major rebuilds and repairs With an area of 57,600 sq m, Pipa
m drifts, where each round required a are handled at the central workshops Norte is located north of the Braden pipe
total of 48 drill holes of 45 mm and two on surface, one for component rebuilds, and south of the Quebrada Teniente
cut holes of 4 in-diameter, the Rocket and the other for major machine over- sector. Its reserves are estimated to be
Boomer rigs drilled holes 4.0 m-long, hauls. 27.1 million t, with an average copper
whereas the other rigs drilled holes 3.1 Atlas Copco maintains a team of grade of 1.024%. Construction started
m-long. The Rocket Boomer rigs also technicians permanently at the mine, in 2001 for production commencement
surpassed the older drill rigs in penetra- working with the maintenance depart- in 2003, with a peak rate of 10,000 t/day
tion rate (1.9 - 2.0 m/min vs 1.23 - 1.28 ment on the commissioning of new by 2005 and a useful life of 10 years.
m/min), drill m/effective hour (150 vs equipment, and providing support and The exploitation method is panel caving
77.5), drill m per round (200 vs 155), operator training during the warranty with pre-undercut and low excavation,
drilling time per round/min (85 vs 155) period of the units. with a labour force of 43 people and a
and advance rounds/shifts (3 vs 1.0 - 1.5). planned personal average productivity
Recent developments rate of 220 t/day. 13 cu yd capacity die-
Maintenance programme sel LHDs are part of a semi-automated
Framed within Codelco's current US$4.2 loading operation, with an operator on
Today, in terms of maintenance, El Ten- billion strategic plan, the US$1.1 billion surface remotely controlling three load-
iente is close to being self-sufficient, and Plan de Desarrollo Teniente (PDT) is the ers. LHD transport and unloading is
does most of its own work. Maintenance great mining, technical and management fully automated.
programmes for all the units are based strategic plan of El Teniente Division Located south of the Braden pipe,
on the suppliers' information, plus ex- for the next 25 years. Its objective is to Diablo Regimiento takes up an area
perience gained in use. All this data is expand the production capacity at all of 201,200 sq m. Its reserves include
held on a centralized system that moni- levels, including mine, concentrator, 98.9 million t, with an average grade of
tors all machines, checks when they need smelter, hydrometallurgy and services, 0.94% of copper. Construction started
maintenance, and organizes what spares and increase El Teniente's economic in 2001 for commencement of produc-
will be required. There are centralized value by over 90% from US$2 billion to tion in 2004, aiming at 28,000 t/day by
maintenance workshops for drill rigs, US$3.8 billion. 2011 with a planned life of 16 years.
LHDs and utility vehicles, with one Amongst other things, the plan con- Average productivity is estimated to be
major workshop for each machine type. templates the incorporation of world- 230 t/day, with a peak labour force of
In this way, the maintenance department class technology. 115 people. The exploitation method

88 underground mining methods

 El Teniente, Chile

used is again panel caving with pre-

undercut. With a main equipment fleet
of 13 cu yd LHDs, Diablo Regimiento is
planned as a semi-automated operation,
similar to Pipa Norte.
Occupying an area of 160,000 sq m,
Pilar Sub 6/Esmeralda is bounded in the
south by the Esmeralda sector, and in the
north by the Andesita and Dacita areas,
which are located west of Quebrada
Teniente. Its reserves are estimated to
be 76.6 million t, with an average grade
of 1.27% copper. Construction started
in 2003 for first production in 2005,
and a peak rate of 18,000 t/day between
2009 and 2016. Productivity has been
estimated as being 150 t/day per worker,
with a labour force during operation of
120 people. The exploitation method
is panel caving with pre-undercut, and
main equipment includes LHDs, 80 t
trucks, plate feeders, breakers, crushers,
and drill rigs for secondary reduction.

New mine level

From 2014 onwards, El Teniente will in-
corporate the New Mine Level (NML)
project into its production plan. This
will become the most important under-
ground panel caving project, and will
sustain the production plans in the long
term, exploiting only primary ore from
an undercut level located at 1,880 m asl.
The new level will be divided into five
mining sectors, with 1,371 million t of
total ore reserves of 0.96% copper grade
covering an area of 1.6 sq km. Initial
production rate will be 2,000 t/day,
reaching 130,000 t/day ultimately.
The NML will deepen the exploi-
tation of the deposit 100 m below the
current main transport level, and will
incorporate blocks with an average of
300 m height. New infrastructure in-
cludes the transport level, service shafts, Atlas Copco Robbins 53RH raise borer.
primary crusher chambers, and drain-
age and ventilation levels. F Varas, Automation of Mineral Ex- E Rojas, R Molina, A Bonani and H
traction and Handling at El Teniente. Constanzo: The Pre-Undercut Caving
References Massmin 2004. Method at the El Teniente Mine,
Codelco, Chile. Massmin, 2000.
This article is based in interviews with M Larraín, Overview El Teniente Di-
management from El Teniente and the vision, Presentation to MBA Students M Larraín, P Maureira, Plan de Desar-
following papers: Vanderbilt University USA, 2002. rollo 2000, Division El Teniente, UGA
MINCO, Executive Summary, 2000.
P Yanez and R Molina, New Mine M Barranza and P Crorkan: Esmeralda
Level Project at El Teniente. Massmin Mine Exploitation Project. Massmin,
2004. 2000.

underground mining methods 89

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