Fundición Paipote
Fundición Hernán Videla Lira better known as Fundicón Paipote, and formerly known as Fundición Nacional Paipote, is a copper smelter plant 8 km southeast of Copiapó in Chile's Atacama Region.[1] It operates with a Teniente Converter smelting technology and produces copper anodes made of 99.6% of copper.[2][3] The smelter is owned by ENAMI and has been paralyzed since February 2024 for a major overhaul costing a total of 1,700 million USD.[4][5][6] At the time of paralization the smelter generated economic losses for ENAMI.[4]
It is classified as a "custom smelter" as it does not depend on ore concentrate from a particular mine nor does it lie next to one.[2] It was established in 1952 with the stated aim of smelting ores of small and medium-scale mining in the Atacama Region.[1] Besides copper it also processes ore concentrates of silver and gold.[1]
In 2015 it had a capacity to produce 84,000 metric tons of copper yearly making it the smallest of Chile's seven copper smelters.[2] As of 2025 the overhaul plan consider that the smelter to reach a cathode producton capacity of 240,000 tons Cu per year.[6]
The smelter has been criticized for exceeding on certain occasions by far (almost 500%) the sulfur dioxide emission cap set by environmental regulations in 2019 which is 350 μg/m3 SO2 per hour.[3] In addition there were accusations in 2021 of doctoring of smelting process data.[3]
It is named after Hernán Videla Lira (1903–1982), a mining businessman and politician .
See also
[edit]- Alexander Sutulov – Chilean-Russian extractive metallurgist
- Gold mining in Chile
- Pirquinero
- Planta de Pellets – iron ore pellet plant in Atacama Region
- Planta Magnetita – iron ore processing plant in Atacama Region
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Cardona, N.; Coursol, P.; Mackey, P.J.; Parra, R. (2011). "Physical chemistry of copper smelting slags and copper losses at the Paipote smelter Part 1 – Thermodynamic modelling". Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly. 50 (4): 318–329.
- ^ a b c Costabal M., Francisco (2015-06-10). Fundiciones de Cobre en Chile (PDF) (Report) (in Spanish). SONAMI. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
- ^ a b c Verdejo, Rodrigo (2022-01-24). "Fundición de Paipote rebasó casi en 500% la norma de calidad del aire: índices de dióxido de azufre son más altos que en crisis de Puchuncaví". Ciper (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-09.
- ^ a b "ENAMI cierra 2024 con utilidades y proyecta un 2025 con resultados positivos". Minería y Futuro (in Spanish). 2025-02-06. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
- ^ Ibarra, Valeria (2024-02-13). "Fin de una era: Fundición Paipote de Enami produjo los últimos ánodos de cobre de sus 72 años de vida". Diario Financiero (in Spanish).
- ^ a b "Enami avanza en proyecto de nueva Fundición de Paipote". Revista Nueva Mineria y Energía (in Spanish). 2025-08-07. Retrieved 2025-08-08.