Energy Conservation

Another environmental aspect of great importance is power consumption, which explains why MSC constantly strives to improve the facilities and the operating processes with the aim of optimizing the use of energy through application of the most advanced methods to reduce the demand and consumption of energy, minimizing the indirect environmental impact in a more global context.

Some of the actions applied to reduce energy consumption are: the innovation of new designs for lining the SAG (semi-autogenous) mill and optimize the treatment capacity, the installation of a bank of capacitors to optimize the power factor of the operation, the installation of frequency variators in engines that consume only the necessary energy, and the use of new highly-efficient engines. This has helped reduce the consumption by up to 9% despite a greater mineral treatment capacity.

Other important improvements of MSC’s production process are the mechanical and electrical adjustments in the tailings thickening tank; the optimization of the blasting to optimize the cracking; and operating adjustments in the crushing. These measures have contributed to improving the yields of the milling phase. The operating optimization of the tailings thickening tank has improved water recovery in the plant.