Armando Valenzuela

Abstract:

In the last years, Chile has been the largest copper producer worldwide, producing this metal by two routes: pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes. However, these processes generate several harmful wastes like acid drainage, flotation tailings, smelter slags and flue dusts, acid effluents, among others. Government has passed several environmental regulations to control and handle waste generation, such as air standards for sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and arsenic from smelters, as well as a new law on mine closure including a financial guarantee; and another law about waste handling and recycling. Additionally, several initiatives are being carried out to handle abandoned mining waste, mainly flotation tailing, with the purpose to avoid pollution. On the other hand, local copper industry has implemented several technologies to handle and manage these wastes and reach the environmental standards. Additionally, it has carried out a lot of research treating to recover metals contained, mainly copper, molybdenum, iron ore, among other less important. In this context, this paper will review environmental regulations established in Chile affecting copper mining industry, as well as initiatives for waste management with focus in metal recovery.