MEI is always looking to involvement with operating mining companies, so we were more than pleased when Capstone Copper decided to sponsor Sustainable Minerals '22, which started today, and also three upcoming events, Process Mineralogy '22 in November, Comminution '23 in April and Flotation '23 in November next year (details will be available soon).
During the first half of 2022, Capstone Mining merged with the privately owned Mantos Copper to form what is now Capstone Copper. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Capstone is a copper-focused mining company that operates the Pinto Valley open pit copper/molybdenum mine in Arizona, USA; the Cozamin underground Copper/Silver in Zacatecas, Mexico; the Mantos Blancos open pit copper mine near Antofagasta, Chile, and the Mantoverde open pit copper mine near Copiapo, Chile.
The Cozamin processing plant consists of conventional crushing and grinding followed by a polymetallic flotation circuit, while the three open pit mines are comprised of both oxide leach and sulfide flotation plants. Capstone has exciting near-term and long-term growth potential, currently being in the ramp-up phase of its 10,000 tpd sulfide expansion at Mantos Blancos, and is in the construction phase of the new 30,000 tpd sulfide concentrator at Mantoverde, which will be commissioned next year.
Capstone is also developing the Santo Domingo Copper/Iron/Cobalt project, which will consist of a 60,000 tpd copper flotation plant, magnetite recovery plant, and pyrite processing plant to recover cobalt and by-product sulfuric acid and energy from waste heat. When complete, it will be one of the largest cobalt production facilities outside the DRC. The combination of Capstone’s growth pipeline, its geographic diversity, and the adoption of such a wide range of mineral processing technologies is technically challenging and underscores the importance of maintaining currency in the most effective new technologies and talent in our industry, and Peter Amelunxen, Vice-President of Technical Services said that is why Capstone Copper is proud to sponsor MEI Conferences.
Peter, the first MEI Young Person's Award winner, was formerly Vice-President of Technical Services at Hudbay Minerals, also a sponsor of Sustainable Minerals '22 and next year's Comminution '23 and Flotation '23, and he said of Hudbay's involvement "it has been Hudbay's pleasure to sponsor MEI and we are proud to continue supporting your mission to foster the sharing of valuable scientific and technical knowledge in the minerals industry. As you well know, it is more imperative than ever for our industry to adopt more efficient and more environmentally and socially sustainable methods and practices, and this can only be done quickly by bringing together the best and brightest minds in our field to promote the sharing of knowledge. For Hudbay, sponsoring MEI's mission isn't just about improving the operation of our mines and concentrators. It's about good corporate citizenship and it is perfectly aligned with our own vision and ESG principles".
Thank you Peter for your continuing support, and a special thanks to all our current sponsors.
My compliments to Capstone Copper for joining other sponsors
ReplyDelete--I always appreciate the industries; they have been the pillars of these academic activities across the globe--shudder to think of future professional activities if these industries--. In fact, we in academic activities can learn so much by interacting with them---.
Reading about Cozamin processing plant operations is very informative--recovery of so many minerals. I am interested to know whether the copper oxide ore is in a different mine or the sulfide part got oxidized as the mining went deeper.
Barry, many may like to read such details on some operating plants--thank you.