La Coipa Mantos de Oro Project

La Coipa Mine is located in the Atacama region of northern Chile, approximately 1,000 kilometers (km) north of Santiago and 140 km to the northeast of Copiapó, Chile.   

Knight Piésold’s Role

Knight Piésold assumed the Engineer of Record (EoR) responsibilities in 2014 for the Rahco and Rakito filtered tailings storage facilities (FTSF). The tailings storage facilities at La Coipa were constructed as a filtered stack operation, where filtered tailings are placed by conveyor and then nominally compacted.

As part of our work we have been involved in the following studies:

• Geotechnical investigation program including SPT, CPT, MASW profiling, vibrating wire piezometers installation, in-situ permeability testing and seismic hazard assessment
• Stability assessment of reclamation scenario Rahco and Rakito stacks including unsaturated seepage and stability analyses, liquefaction assessment and dynamic deformation analyses
• Evaluation of the hydrologic conditions of the project
• Conceptual reclamation design of FTSFs
• Assessment of the current FTSFs irrigation practice
• Hydrogeology assessment
• Permit, preliminary feasibility and scoping level assessment of tailings storage alternatives for future project expansion

The work being done at La Coipa will result in a more efficient closure plan for the Rahco and Rakito stacks as Phase 1 and the evaluation of tailings storage alternatives for future Project expansion as part of Phase 2.