Baja Mining, a mine development company, has offered a project update on its 70% owned Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project, which is situated close to Santa Rosalia at Baja California Sur in Mexico.
Mining is in progress from late 2011 and in February, 2012, more than 256,000 DMT of ore was mined and has been stored in the site. Most of the ore has been obtained through surface mining activities.
The underground mining is conducted with utmost care for safety. In addition, training will be provided to the inexperienced workers to handle difficult ground environment, which includes the old underground mines as well.
In the meantime, the company has decided to sign a short term agreement with an experienced contractor to meet the mining schedule as planned. The company expects to sign the agreement by Q2 of 2012. The development activities in two of the company’s underground mining region will be undertaken by the new contractor and the company’s workers will continue to work in another region of the project.
The building work at Boleo process plant is ongoing and in February 2012, 37.2% of construction has been completed. Over 5.8 million cubic meters of earthworks has been finished, 39839 m³ of concrete has been used for construction and structural steel erection has begun in the building. The copper production is expected to begin from 2013.
Source: http://www.bajamining.com