The Chuquicamata mine, located 1,650km north of Santiago, Chile, is owned and operated by Chile's National Copper Corporation, Codelco.

Metso's scope in the contract includes the engineering, supply of equipment and materials, and site assistance for 12 underground crusher stations combined with a conveyor package. The delivery contains 11 new units of Metso's largest C200 jaw crushers, 24 push feeders and 20 conveyors. Overall, Metso stated that the contract constitutes one of the most sizeable crusher orders ever for the company's mining business.

The project is scheduled to continue until 2020 and the order was booked in Metso's June quarter 2016 orders received.

Metso offered Codelco an integrated solution that carried through from engineering, crusher stations, and material handling to electrification, automation, and site assistance. In addition, Metso stated that the energy savings from its Energy Saving Idler (ESI) conveyor technology gave the company offering a competitive edge.

Codelco's decision to work with Metso was also backed by Metso's proven installed base of equipment, engineering and project management capability already present in other similar applications in the region, which Metso said demonstrate its ability to deliver on time and on budget with production guaranteed. The Metso team was able to offer Codelco an excellent deal in terms of total cost of ownership and energy efficiency of material and handling.

João Ney Colagrossi, president, minerals capital business area at Metso, said: “We are very proud of this order. It clearly demonstrates that we at Metso are more committed than ever to promoting excellence in our operations to help our customers create profitable and sustainable solutions. It is in this spirit that we fought and won this sizeable and strategic deal with Codelco.”