CARMEN COPPER CORPORATION

I. Company Profile and History

Carmen Copper Corporation is a subsidiary of Atlas Consolidated Mining and
Development Corporation. It is the largest copper mine in the Philippines. The
Carmen Copper Corporation was incorporated on September 16, 2004, together
with the Berong Nickel Corporation, and AquaAtlas Inc. Atlas Mining is the mother
company and Carmen Copper is the subordinate. Carmen Copper Corporation is
primarily involved in mining and involves in the exploration and production of
copper. Carmen Copper Corporation or the mine site is located at Barangay Don
Andres Soriano, Toledo City, Cebu 6038. The Atlas Mining manages the Toledo
copper mine covering 1674 hectares. Carmen Copper Corporation was formerly
owned by the Sorianos. The word Carmen from Carmen Copper came from the
ladys name. The company was named in honor of the late wife of Andres Soriano,
Sr., the founder of the company. The Atlas Mining exists since 1953.
 Carmen Copper was ranked as 3rd largest copper mine in the world in the
1970s to 1980s. Due to decline of metal prices, it shut down in 1994. The copper
mine reopened and has been operating since 2004.

In February 2016, Carmen Copper Corporation became certified for

Integrated Management System which covers the OHSAS 18001:2007 for
occupational health and safety regulations and the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) 14001:2004 for environmental management. The certification
of the Carmen Copper Corporation is due to their safety implementation at work
and excellent environmental protection.
.
II. Plant Description
Carmen Copper Corporation has a copper mine covering 1,674 hectares.
Carmen Copper Corporation contains an open pit mining which is operated using
conventional truck and shovel operation. They can produce up to The Carmen
Copper Corporation has a Biga Pit Tailings Storage Facility (Biga TSF) which is a safe
facility for the mine tailings. The mill tailings are being deposited into the Biga TSF.
They also have their own hospital and dormitory. Their main source of water is the
Malubog Dam and their power source is Toledo Power.

Figure 1 Biga Pit Tailings Dam

 Figure 2 Carmen Open Pit

IV. Unit Operations and Unit Processes

The Carmen Coppers process of producing copper concentrate is generally
divided into two phases: the ore mining, and the copper extraction from the ores.

a. Ore Mining
Copper mining is usually done through open pit mining. In open pit mining, the
ground is excavated until the desired ore is revealed. Exploration must be done before
excavation to ensure the presence of copper rich ore [1]. For Carmen Copper
Corporation, they presently gets their copper from their mining pit called Carmen Pit.
After excavation, drilling, bench blasting, loading and hauling and waste dumping are
done.
1.) Drilling
Drilling is the process of making holes into the benches of the pit.
Benches are the walls of the stair like structure in an open pit mine [1].
Explosives will be put in the drilled holes for blasting the rocks. Drilling is done
with careful planning to ensure that the explosions will not cause any
undesirable results such as accidents or erosion.

2.) Bench Blasting

Bench blasting is the process of utilizing explosives to breakdown the
rocks and expose the desired ores [2] . The explosives are put inside the drilled
holes. Ammonium nitrate is the most commonly used. Carmen Copper did not
mention what kind of explosives they are using.

3.) Loading and Hauling

After blasting, the desired ore is loaded to hauling trucks. The Carmen
Copper hauling trucks are claimed to be of excellent quality wherein it was said
that a trucks single wheel is worth a million pesos and is changed every month.
This is to decrease the possibility of accidents during hauling since open pits are
prone to erosion and other related incidents. The ores are transported to the
first step of ore processing which is crushing.

4.) Waste Dumping

Uneconomical rocks are unnecessary in open pit mining and must be
removed to expose the desired ores. For example, after blasting, there are rocks
that has no economic value and as considered as waste. Since this has to be
removed, these waste rocks are dumped into another pit. In Carmen Copper
corporation, its waste rocks is dumped into an old pit which has already been
mined called Mabais-Sigpit Waste pit.
 Loading
Bench Waste
Drilling and
Blasting Dumping
Hauling

Figure 3 Ore Mining Diagram

b. Copper Extraction Process

To extract the copper concentrate from the ore, six main processes are
involved consist of five (5) unit operations which are crushing, screening, milling, and
dewatering and two (2) unit processes which are flotation and thickening.

Crushing Screening Grinding Flotation

Copper Thickening
Dewatering
concentrate

Tailings go to Biga Pit

Figure 4 Copper extraction from Ore

1.) Crushing
Crushing is a unit operation used to reduce the size of the ore. The
transported ores from the mining site are fed into the primary crusher for initial
crushing. A secondary crushing will follow. This step is done to reduce the size of
the ores to a certain size for efficient processing.
2.) Screening
Screening is another unit operation used to separate the desired size from
the undesired. The crushed ores will be screened to forbid the entry of big chunks
of ores that are not ideal for the next process. The oversize ores are then fed back to
the crushers to further reduce the size.

3.) Milling or Grinding

Milling is done with the use of rotary ball mills. This further reduces the size
of ore particles. These steel balls grind the ore particles into finer particles. This step
is for better extraction and efficient reaction.

4.) Flotation
Flotation is a unit process wherein the wettability of the minerals is altered.
A chemical is added to selectively make the desired component become
hydrophobic [3]. These hydrophobic metal clings to air bubbles and floats on top.
The hydrophilic component exits the flotation tank along with water as tailings. The
chemical used in Carmen Copper was not mentioned. Series of high grade flotation
cells are used by the company.

5.) Thickening
Thickening is done to allow the particles to settle down. Coagulants and
flocculants are added to increase the settling velocity of the particles. Circular
thickeners are used in the plant. The copper rich solids will settle down and will be
removed by the use of rakes. It will then proceed to dewatering.

6.) Dewatering by Filtration and Drying

This process basically separates the solid form the liquid in the form of filter
cake through the use of filter-press. A filtering medium is used and is press in order
to form the cake. The filter cake was further dried, but the type of drier was not
mentioned. According to the Carmen Copper, it is important to monitor the
 moisture content of the copper concentrate since transporting with water is costly
but transporting a completely dried copper concentrate will produced dust and may
heat or caught fire. The copper content of the concentrate was not mentioned.

It was also mentioned in the plant presentation that molybdenum and magnetite
can be recovered from the waste slurry from the thickeners. These economical by-products
have their own mini processing plants and are also sold in the market. The recovery
processes of the two by-products were not further discussed.

IV. Environmental and Community Management

The Carmen Copper Corporation also boasts its environmental rehabilitation efforts.
The corporation was also said to be recognized by DENR with its environmental
management efforts despite of being an open pit mining company. It was said that 2.23
Billion pesos is spent by the company for environmental protection.

Reforestation is one of the companys environmental programs. They even have

their own nursery for trees. Majority of the planted trees are acacia trees. There are visible
rehabilitated pits in the area. Because of the growing forested areas, it even now serves as
habitat for forest animals such as monkeys which can be seen even crossing the roads.

Proper waste disposal is also observed in the company. The mine waste are dumped
to Mabais-Sigpit pit while the tailings are contained in an old mining pit called Biga Pit. This
pit contains the tailings from the ore processing. According to CCC, these will also bring back
the level of the ground as time passes by as there will be accumulation of particles that has
settled. The company is proud of this tailings dam as they do not dispose their tailings to a
body of water unlike other mining companies.

The plant also has its own material recovery facility, air and water control
monitoring and hazard material storage.
 It was also said that 427 Million Pesos are spent for the community surrounding the
area. This budget is converted to different community projects. The company also funds
scholarships for students as way of giving back to the community. The company pays 1.47
Billion pesos as tax to the government.
Reference:
[1] Mine-engineer.com. Basics of an open pit mine. [online] Available at: http://www.mine-
engineer.com/mining/open_pit.htm [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].

[2] Dynamic Drill and Blasting. Blast Hole Drilling Explained. [online] Available at:
http://dynamicdrillandblast.com.au/blast-hole-drilling-explained [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].

[3] Mineral Processing & Metallurgy. Froth Flotation Process. [online] Available at:
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/froth-flotation-process [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].