The Cuajone quarry is located 30 km northeast of Moquegua. Material began to be extracted in 1970 and in 1976 the first shipment of material to the concentration plant took place. Cuajone is a large-scale mining project in the country, exploited by the Southern Perú Company. This copper deposit is located in an area of strong topographic relief where the presence of Cerro Baúl stands out. This mine is operated open cut. It has machinery, dump trucks, shovel, cargo train to transport ore to the Ilo refinery, concentrator for grinding the ore, tailings thickeners, etc.
The concentrator has a capacity of 87,000 tons per day; Operations are controlled by computerized monitoring systems. To satisfy the needs of the workers, homes, hospitals and schools were built, considered among the best in South America. Each camp has its amenities: buildings, gardens, tracks, trails, recreational areas, civic and commercial centers. In reality there is a harmony of the man-capital-technique set. It is one of the largest copper deposits in the country, in the surrounding area there are large eucalyptus forests.
Particularities
First Mine at the National level, which extracts the largest amount of copper.
Actual state
Good condition thanks to the maintenance provided by the Southern Peru company.
Income type
Prior coordination with the company.
Location:
The Cuajone porphyritic copper deposit is located in the south of Peru in the Western Cordillera of the Andes on the Andean flank of the Department of Moquegua between 3,150 and 3,500 meters above sea level. intercepted by the Chuntacala and Torata
History:
Historically there is reference that since the end of the century In the past, small-scale copper mining was carried out in form of superficial searches. It was in the year 1937 that the Cerro de Pasco Corporation, through a campaign exploratory, determines the area as a potential development Project low grade porphyritic copper. After superficial mapping and surveys topographical, in 1942, the first exploratory diamond drilling campaign of the deposit began, which followed an aerial photography campaign, Geophysical-Geochemical prospecting, metallurgical tests and new drilling campaigns confirmatory and development that made the project feasible in the 60's decade. At the end of 1969 the construction stage began and clearing material to prepare the mine. In the year 1976 It starts with production. A model of the evolution of the reservoir has been developed from the premineral rocks of the Toquepala Group of which the Basaltic andesite was a major recipient of the mineralization of copper originated by the intrusion of a first pulse of latite porphyritic. Finally the site was covered by rocks postminerals corresponding to the clastic and volcanic formations Huaylillas and Chuntacala. This sequence of events develops from the end of the Cretaceous to the Quaternary.
The orientation of the structures has a generalized tendency northwestward. The Botiflaca and Viña Blanca faults They form a corridor where the deposit that has an elongated shape in the same direction. The predominance of structures within the pit also has a northwest direction. Hydrothermal alterations are mainly represented by a potassic alteration that has been intersected in depth by means of diamond drills and that in the currently does not yet emerge in the open pit, an alteration propylica that borders the site in a halo of approximately four kilometers and; an intermediate phyllic retrograde alteration caused mainly by solutions with temperaturas between 500 and 100° C. Additionally, there are alterations gradational and superimposed on the contacts between them. A supergenic alteration also occurs, represented by the argillic alteration.
The mineralization of the deposit is disseminated, regular, homogeneous; It has a simple mineralogy and is mainly related to the intrusion of porphyritic latite of age between 50 and 60 MA. of antiquity. Cuajone currently has 23 years of production. In total have extracted 1,443 million tons of material of which 425 million ore have been treated in the concentrator with an average grade of 0.97% Cu. Alternative exploratory studies towards the northwest and in depth that have been carried out since 1982, have allowed to increase mineral reserves. Currently They have 1,400 million tons with an average grade of 0.64% Cu and 0.033% MoS2 considering a cutoff of 0.40% of Cu.
Description:
The mineralized body partially outcrops on the southern slope of the Quebrada Torata and is cut in its central part from east to west by the Quebrada Chuntacala that contributes its waters to the Quebrada Torata, approximately 4 km downstream. The Cuajone mine currently exploits 200,000 TC of material/day, ranking as one of the top 10 mines at the level world in terms of importance. In order to achieve this production. There are shovels with a capacity of up to 80 TC and trucks of 240 TC capacity. All movement of mining equipment is monitored and controlled through the Truck Dispatch that allows the elaboration automatically reports that immediately detect what is happening at all times. The Cuajone concentrator has recently been expanded to treat 96,000 TC of ore (it is one of the largest concentrators in Peru), its initial design was to treat 40,000 TC.
The projections that we have for it are to be able to expand it until reaching a capacity of 154,000 TC. The entire process is controlled by computers. The Cuajone deposit currently has reserves of 1,400 Millions of TC of ore with an average grade of 0.64% Cu and 0.033% molybdenite grade with a cutoff of 0.40% Cu grade. All these reservations, considering the current pace of treatment of mineral, give it a life of very close to 40 years. From the beginning of operations until December 1998, the Cuajone concentrator has treated approximately 425 million of TC of ore with an average grade of 0.97% Cu.
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