Baja Mining has begun surface mining at its Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project, which is situated near Santa Rosalia in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Surface mining team of the company has finished the first machine operator training program and has started mining activities to expand the surface facilities and underground mining portals, which is planned for later operation.
The company has trained the first surface mining team in machine operations to generate the essential materials volume to fulfill the mining plans. The underground and surface mining teams will be raised to more than 450 workers during peak construction at the Boleo project.
The training campaign was executed in the Phase I and the activities included productivity and safety.
Now, the fleet of the surface mining equipment comprises 12 large machines that include a front end loader, hydraulic excavator, mine hauling trucks and tractor bulldozers in the first quarter of 2011. Baja will double this fleet in the next quarter to perform critical surface construction including mining to offer the construction materials for the onsite tailings dam.
This is the initial onsite mining activity of the company and is in harmony with the operational plans of Boleo to increase production.
Source: http://www.bajamining.com/