- • Most mining operations in Chile are open pit-structures, involving excavation and transportation to processing plants within the mining complex. These processes are highly intensive in energy, electricity, and diesel consumption.
- According to information gathered from COCHILCO, in 2018, the mining industry consumed 177 GJ, equal to around 14% of the country’s aggregate consumption, producing 6.06 MM tCO2eq of greenhouse gases.
- According to the EP 2018, 13.5% of the country’s emissions come from the Industry and Mining sectors (2010).
- According to the Mining Council, electricity constitutes about 20% of mining companies’ operating costs.
- More than 90% of the country’s mining exports are copper. Globally, Chile leads in copper production (27%) and occupies second place in Molybdenum production (20% of world production).
- The mining industry of the future will seek to automate its processes, switch to fuels generated with fewer emissions (green hydrogen), increase energy efficiency in each of its processes, and use electrical energy from renewable sources, to reduce their carbon footprint.
- The promotion of efficient technologies for generating heat and avoiding losses, powered in turn by a low emission and non-polluting sources, is the challenge for the mining industry of the future.
- Renewable energies can also be harnessed directly at a mine site, for example, by generating heat with concentrating solar power plants.
Open Pit Mine
- According to Cochilco’s study on mining energy use (2018), open-pit mining consumed 69.9 GJ, equivalent to 40% of total mining consumption, followed only by energy consumption in the ore concentration process (30%). This high consumption is mainly due to structural issues facing the mining industry today, such as decreasing mine grades (amount of ore extracted vs. material processed) which involves a more considerable amount of ore to be transported and also the aging of deposits, resulting in deeper quarries and therefore greater distances for carrying the ore from extraction to processing.
- The use of fuels in the open-pit mining process equals 79% of total mining fuel use, and it has tripled between 2001 and 2018.
- In the case of open-pit mining, electricity consumption per ton of ore extracted is 4,6 MJ/Ton. The promotion of electromobility in open-pit mining, accompanied by the development of trucks and other vehicles powered by hydrogen, could have a significant impact on the mitigation of emissions from the sector by 2050.
Open Pit Mine
Image of a concentrated solar thermal installation for process heat in a mine in the north of Chile