The Quebrada Blanca mine is located in Tarapacá Region of northern Chile at an elevation of 4,400 metres, approximately 240 kilometres southeast of the city of Iquique and 1,500 kilometres from Santiago.
Teck owns a 90% interest in the mine. The remaining 10% interest is owned by Empresa Nacional de Minería.
Quebrada Blanca is an open pit operation, which leaches the ore to produce copper cathodes via processing in an SX-EW plant. Copper cathode is trucked to Iquique for shipment to purchasers. Mine personnel live in a camp facility, and the majority commute from large population centres, including Iquique, Arica and Santiago.
Quebrada Blanca produced 25,500 tonnes of copper cathode in 2018, compared to 23,400 tonnes in 2017. We expect production of approximately 20,000 to 23,000 tonnes of copper cathode in 2019.