Neves-Corvo Mine - Portugal

NEVES-CORVO MINE

NEVES-CORVO MINE

COMPANV DESCRIPTON
S O MI N C O R- Soco Mineira de Neves- Corvo, S A, was formed on 2 4th of July 1 9 80, after a sulphide deposit containing signiticant amounts of base metais, predominantly copper and zinc, was discovered in 1 9 7 7. The initial discovery was made by consortium of the Portuguese State company ED M, Penarroya and B R G M.

There are tive massive sulphide orebodies: Neves, Corvo, Graa, Zambujal and lombador. The Mine is located in the lower Alentejo, on the southern edge of the Iberian Pyrite Belt. The mine is 220 kilometres southeast of lisbon and 102 kilometres of Faro. ln June 200 4 Somincor which owns and operates the mine was acquired by Euro zinc Mining Corporation. As of November 2006, Somincor was fully consolidated into lundin Mining. Following the acquisition by lundin of Neves- Corvo, management has focused on improving the mine's operating performance and exploring for new resources and reserves in the immediate vicinity.

PRODUCTION

Mine

ln a global context, The Neves Corvo is notable and important for the scale and technological content of its design, construction and operations. The production results compare well with target values and management has embraced the concept of constant improvement. The Mine operates three 7. hr shifts per day, 6 days per week, with 5 two crews working from Monday to Friday and from Tuesday to Saturday. The Mine produces two ore types ( M C copper ore and MZ- zinc ore) and two waste products ( E S C- Waste and M E-waste with sulphides) .

Access
The mine is accessed by: A 5 meter diameter circular unlined shaft, situated to the west of the main Corvo orebody. From a ramp surface to the 700 level ( 5 m below surface) at a 00 gradient of 1 7%and with a cross sectional area of 25 2 m

Stoping methods

The mine has four different mining methods: Bench & Fi I I Drift & Fi I I Mini Bench & Fi I I Si I I Pillar The first two are the main methods. Mini Bench & Fill is a sub-type of Bench and Fi I I. Bench & Fi I I is responsible for 5 %of the 5 annual production and Drift & Fill is responsible for the remaining 45 . %
Mine Maintenance

The Underground Workshops are located at 810, 700 and 590 levels (surface is 1200 levei).
Crushing

The mine has two crushing stations.The 700 Crusher is the upper crusher station It is located at the 700 levei and crushes ore and waste from Upper Corvo, Neves, Graa, Zambujal and Corvo Southeast orebodies. The 700 Crusher has a jaw crusher capable of handling up to 600 tonnes/hour and is integrated with four 15 tonnes capacity storage bins. The 5 0 Crusher 00 5 is the lower crusher station. It is located at the 5 0 levei and 5 crushes ore from Lower Corvo. The 5 0 Crusher has a jaw crusher capable of handling up 5 to 400 tonnes/hour and is integrated with two rock storage bins of 600 tonnes and 400 tonnes capacity.
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Hoisting

The shaft is 600 meters deep and extends to just below the 700 levei. I t is equipped with rope guides, a 2. 4 M W double drum winder and two 1 4 tonne capacity skips.lt operates at 12.5 m/sec velocity and is guided by 4 rope guides of 3 8 mm each. There are two pulleys with 6.4 meters diameter. Complete cyele time from skip loading to discharge is approximately 80 sec. Hoisting capacity: 3.0 milHon tonnes per year.
Ventilation

The mine is ventilated by 7 main intake ventilation raises and 5 main exhaust raises. Ali exhaust raises are equipped with fans on surface. There are three new intake raises. For exhaust there is one raise drilled, which is waiting for a fan and one in projecto The shaft and main ramp also provides intake air between surface and the 700 levei. Total installed fan capacity at the mine is 10 60 m3/sec. Utilised capacity is 8 80 m3/sec.
Backfill

Hydraulic Fi I I Capacity: Two lines x 300 tonne/hour. Standard mix by solids is 9 4%sand, 3%tailings and 3%cement. The fill is prepared in a surface plant and fed to the stopes via bore holes drilled to surface. ln 200 8, 3 4 9. 4 m3 were filled which consumed 6 4 6.4 7 8 tonnes 10 of sand, 58.31 8 tonnes of cement and 7.92 4 tonnes of tailings.
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Paste FiII

Paste fil! plant capacity is 35 000 m3/year. Currently the mine 0 3/year and the current capacity 80 to 90 m 3/hour. uses 220 000 m This operates 2 4 hours/day, 7 days per week. Paste fil! mix is 95%to 9 9 %cycloned tailings and 1%to 5 %cement. The higher cement fill is used in the primary bench stopes and the lower cement fil! in the secondary bench stopes.

Pumping

The mine pumps on average 25 m3/hr of water and 5 m3per 0 0 hour of mud to surface. The mud is sent to the tailings dam via the concentrator tailings pumping system and the clear water is treated and then recycied or discharged into the Oeiras river.

There are 4 clear water pumps each with a capacity of 200 m3/hour and 4 mud pumps with a capacity to treat 5 m3/ 00 hour of water with 10%to 15 %solids. The mine has an emergency underground storage capacity of 12 hours. The water quality of the mine has a p H 10 due to a high dissolved cement contento

Copper Plant
The installed capacity is Z.Z million tonnes per year. This plant is operated continuously using a five-shift rotating roster. The operation starts at the coarse ore stockpiles, through pre-screening, crushing, grinding, flotation, filtration to concentrate storage and despatch and includes utilities and tailings pondo
Pre-Screening and Crushing

Coarse ore from the mine is delivered to dedicated surface stockpiles by conveyor and moving stacker. The ore is reclaimed from the stockpiles by a Loader into two variable plate feeders, feeding either the pre-screening section and/or the crushers. Crushing Plant throughput averages 350 tonnes per hour. The silo has a capacity of Z5 00 tonnes allowing 10 hours of Rod Mm Feed.

Grinding and Regrind

Planned milling rate is Z5 0/260 dry tph to the Rod Mm. The Primary Grinding Circuit consists of a Rod Mm in open circuit, and a Primary and Secondary Ball Mm in closed circuit with hydrocyclones, for the primary and for secondary. Secondary Cyclone overflow, at 80% passing of 45 11 (micron) goes to the Flotation circuito The Regrind Mm works in closed circuit fed by the underflow of 15 to Z5with 6 inch cyclones that can achieve at 80%passing of ZO to Z5 11m (micron).

Flotation

From the Primary Grinding Circuit the slurry passes through two aerator conditioners ( 3 8 m3 ceUs) to the flotation circuit, 62 ceUs of 1 7m3 and 12 of 3 8m3. Concentrate from the first bank of Rougher n21 ( 3 ceUs of 1 7 m3)feeds the second cleaner, but can optionaUy go to the regrinding. lhe remaining three banks of Roughers n21 and n22 (11 ceUs of 1 7 m3) can either go to the regrind (normal)or to the first cleaner. Rougher tailings feed the Coarse Scavenger ( 6 caUs of 3 8 m3), which produce a concentrate that goes to the regrind, and part of the final tailings. lhe Cleaners have 3 stages, with 1 7m3 ceUs, 9 on the First, 7 on the Second and 4 on the lhird. lhe concentrate of each cleaning stage goes to the next, and the tailings, to the previous one. lhe final 3 rd Cleaner concentrate contains 24/25 % Cu and goes to Filtration. lhe tailings of the 1 sI Cleaner goes to the regrind.

After regrinding the slurry feeds the Regrind Rougher. lhis has 7 ceUs of 1 7 m3, that produce a concentrate feeding the 1st cleaner and a tail feeding the Fine Scavenger. lhis Fine Scavenger has 7 ceUs of 1 7m3 and gives two products, a concentrate that goes to the regrind and the remainder of the final tailings. Filtration Final concentrate is pumped to a 40m diameter thickener where it is thickened to 70%solids before passing to the Filter Plant Storage lank. From the tank the slurry is pumped on demand to the five Sala Pressure Filters with a capacity of 25 dry tonne per hour each. Normal operation uses four filters, with one on stand - for by maintenance.

Concentrate Handling

Filtered concentrate can either be loaded direct into containers via the conveyor load out system, or stockpiled under the filters.

Zinc Plant
Introduction

Somincor's Zinc plant has been developed using the building and most of the infrastructure of the tin plant. Extensive work was carried out to repair and adapt the existing equipment to treat the complex polymetallic zinc ores of the Neves- Corvo orebodies. lhe installed capacity is 0.4 million tonne per year. lhe plant is made up of the following areas: Coarse ore park and redaim, Crushing, Grinding, Flotation Concentrate Handling, lailings
Coarse Ore Park and Redaim

Ore is stockpiled by ore type, with the MZ deposited dose to the zinc plant crushing section. Ore is redaimed from the pile by front end loaders, and feeds the crushing circuit via an Apron feeder. Crushing lhe first stage of crushing is carried out in a jaw crusher with a discharge gap of 50 mm. Jaw crusher product feeds the secondary cone crusher, which also operates in open circuito
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Product from the secondary crusher feeds a single deck screen with 1 4mm screen deck. Undersi ze material, at a 80%passlng of 10mm feeds two fine ore silos, while oversi ze material goes to a tertiary "short-head"cone crusher in closed circuit with the screen.
Primary Grinding

The Massive Sulphide ( M S) grinding circuit consists of two Ball Mi I Is in series, each in closed circuit with cyclones. Mil! motors are 4S0 k W each, and produce a flotation feed 80%passing of 4 5 to 50 I1m (micron) . ln the secondary grinding stage, Sodium Metabissulfite ( M B S) is added as a zinc depressant.
Flotation

The product from grinding,with a pulp density of 3 5% solids, feeds the flotation section. The Flotation circuits are designed with sufficient flexibility to treat a range of ore types depending on the relative Copper, Lead and Zinc concentratlons. Full Differential Copper/ Lead Zinc Flotation, in the case of MZ ore with recoverable grades of copper ( Cu> 0,80). ln this circuit, feed material from the primary grindlng is aerated, before conditioning with either Danaflot 52 7 E or Potassium Amyl xanthate as collector at a p H of 10. Copper flotation is undertaken in a single stage of roughing, and copper rougher concentrate is then transferred to the main copper plant for upgrading together with the existing copper ores.

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Copper circuit tailings then feed the lead circuito Here the slurry is conditioned with the lead collector ( Aerophine 341 8 A). Rougher flotation is carried out at a p H of 9.0, with rougher concentrate feeding the regrind section, and tailings are sent to the thickener prior to zinc flotation. lead regrinding is carried out in a ball mil! with a 110 k W motor, operating in closed circuit with 5 inch cyclones. Overflow from the cyclones, with a 80%passing of 1 5 to 20 microns, feeds the regrind rougher. Regrind rougher concentrate feeds the cleaner circuit, while tallings are sent to the thickener prior to zinc flotation. lhe lead cleaner section is ma de up of 3 stages of conventional cleaning, followed by a high column flotation cell. Final lead concentrate is sent to a 5.5m diameter conventional thickener before filtration. lailings from the lead circuit are thickened in a lamella thickener to stabili ze the zinc flotation feed tonnage and density at about 3 5% solids. lhe slurry is then conditioned with lime to a p H of 11.5, and then with Copper Sulphate as the sphalerite activator. Potassium Amyl Xanthate is used as the collector.

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As with the lead circuit, the concentrate from rougher flotatlon Is reground, while rougher tailings goes to final tailings. Regrlnding is carried out in a 3, Om x 4, Om ball mill, with a 450 k W motor. Thls operates in closed circuit with 5 inch cyclones. Overflow from the cyclones, with a 80%passing of 15to 20 microns, feeds the regrind rougher. Regrind rougher concentrate feeds the cleaning sectlon, while tailings aero refloated in the regrind scavenger. Regrlnd scavenger concentrate is returned to the regrind circuit, whlle talllngs goes to final tailings. The cleaning section is made up of 3 stages of conventional cleaners. First cleaner tailings returns to the regrinding sectlon, while third cleaner concentrate is pumped to the zinc concentrate thlckener prior to filtering.
Concentrate Handling

Zinc concentrate is pumped to a 1 7.5m diameter conventional thickener. Underflow from this thickener is pumped at about 70% solids to a holding tank, before feeding a pressure filter. Moisture content is reduced in this filter to approximately 8%. After filtration the concentrate is transferred by conveyor to a purpose built storage shed. From where it is loaded as necessary by front-end loader into open topped 20'containers for transport to the port facility in Setbal.

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Tailings

The final tailings from the zinc circuit are pumped to the central tailings pumping station near the Copper Plant. Here tailings from the two plants are cycloned to produce a thickened underflow product for use in the underground Paste fill plant. During cyclone operation, some 50% of tailings are sent underground as backfill in worked out stopes. Overflow from the cyclones is then pumped about 5 to the km Cerro do lobo tailings dam, where it is deposited sub-aqueous. The tailings dam is operated with zero-discharge of water to the environment. Process water from thickeners is recycled within the Plant and also recycled water from the Tailings Dam is utilised.

Environment

From its early days the Company adopted best practices and an ethical approach to the environment, any negative effects that mining operations might cause have been anticipated and reduced to a minimum. ln implementing an environmental policy, Somincor assumed the commitment to maintain a high levei of environmental protection methods in its exploration, mining and ore processing operations, promoting the well-being of its employees and the surrounding community. The general environmental practice principies which have established at Somincor require there to be:
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1. Compliance with applicable legislation and self-imposed company regulations: 2. Written short, medium and long term environmental programme; 3. Information and communication programme; 4. Environmental research programme; 5. An updated general mine closure plan. Since the commencement of production, Somincor has developed extensive monitoring programmes and has assembled a high quality data set covering the principal area of impact of the company' activities. s

Safety and Health

Somincor and Lundin Mining are committed to Safety and Health with a policy of: Minimising and if possible, eliminating injuries and ilnesses due to unsafe acts or working conditions; Minimising damage to property and unplanned operational interruptions caused by incidents;

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Having available plans for handling emergencies; Regularly reporting an Company performance in this area and establishing site-specific targets and action plans for improving workplace health and safety requirements. The continous improvement of the safety and health procedures is the key of sucesso The commitment and a proactive attitude from Directors is important to get the best practices in Safety.

Human Resources

From the begining the Company has always aimed to maximize use of the existing human resources in this region, directly contributing towards increasing incomes and a corresponding improvement in quality of life. Somincor has 8 82 employees and 7 70 workers from contractors. The absenteeism is 2. 11% . The local viii ages of Castro Verde, Almodvar, Aljustrel, Mrtola and Ourique provide 90%of the workforce.

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SOCIAL RESPONSABllITY ANO SUSTAINABlE OEVElOPMENT

Corporate responsibility has long been a part of Somincor's values and how we operate. ln today's competitive business environment, it has also taken on an increasingly strategic role, helping us manage and create vaiue for our company. We recognize that our long-term success depends on our ability to galn access to new resources, the strength of relationships with key stakeholders, managing operations responsibly and efficiently in increasingly complex environments, as well as contributing to economic development. Corporate responslbllity Is a key to hei ping us achieve these objectives.

For our company, corporate responsibility means ensuring we have or are developing sound policies, practices and programs that address each of the following seven elements: Business ethics and transparency Workplace practices and employee relations Environment, health and safety Human rights Community engagement and development Integration of corporate responsibility into our supply chaln Stakeholder consultation. These criteria are reflected in our environmental, health and safety management system and our energy efficiency efforts. It is also visible in our community investment programs, namely with the Regional Development Agency, whlch help build human capacity and create economic development. We are committed to continuing to expand our knowledge and understandlng of social and environmental issues that affect and are affected by our operation, to integrating that knowledge into how we do business, and to contlnually improvlng our performance in this important area.

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lhe Future
Exploration and Prospection

Lundin Mining currently controls more that 3,600 square kilometres of exploration concessions covering a large part of the Iberian Pyrite Belt in Portugal. This belt of rocks contains some of the largest Volcanic-Hosted Massive Sulphide deposits in the world, and has been a focus of mining activity since before Roman times. Exploration activities are focused on the search for new deposits. Within the Iberian Pyrite Belt, there are many more deposits known in Spain than in Portugal. Lundin believes that this apparent discrepancy is due to historically less exploration in Portugal combined with the deposits being more deeply buried. Using modern exploration technology, we expect to be able to find new deposits that were not detectable by previous workers. There is also tremendous potential to increase the size of the ore resources at the Neves Corvo mine. The orebodies at Neves Corvo are among the largest and highest grade in the world for this type of deposito They remain open to expansion in several directions and additional drilling is required before the true size of this deposit is known. The exploration programme continues to turn up evidence to permit an extension of currently expected mine life, bringing further benefits to ali stakeholders of Somincor.
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For more informations,please contact us

Somincor - Sociedade Mineira de Neves Corvo, S A

Santa Brbara de Padres 7 7 80 -90 9 Castro Verde Portugal

Telephone number

: +

3 51 2 8 6 6 8 9000 (phone operator)

Head of Communications and Public Relations - Lgia Vrzea e-mail: ligia. varzea@somincor. pt

It is forbidden to reproduce or copy this brochure and the photos without consent of Company. Somincor copywrites.

edition: Communication and Public Relations 2010

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lundin mining

www.lundinmining.com