MONTREAL. SNC-Lavalin has won a contract to provide overall management, detailed engineering, procurement and construction services for a thickened tailings disposal system at the Cerro Negro Norte iron project owned by Compania Minera del Pacifico in Chile. SNC-Lavalin’s portion of the contract is estimated at over US$50 million.
The Cerro Negro Norte project is located 60 km north of Copiapó City in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world. The mine will produce 20,000 tonnes of tailings per day, which will be treated with SNC-Lavalin's in-house thickened tailings disposal technology. The technology will allow the tailings to be stored safely and recover about 98% of water, an extremely scarce resource in the region.
"This award is an important part of our sustainable mine development program in Chile and other parts of the world," said Feroz Ashraf, SNC-Lavalin executive VP. "The use of our thickened tailings technology provides better protection to the environment, and offers energy savings and seismic assurances."
The engineering phase has been completed by SNC-Lavalin's Santiago office, and initial infrastructure construction activities are scheduled to start in October 2012. Mechanical completion of the project is expected by Q3 2013.
Please visit SNCLavalin.com.
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