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Chile’s state-run copper miner, Codelco, will start using explosives with a significantly lower carbon footprint at its Radomiro Tomic mine, the company announced on Thursday.
Explosives are used in mines to break up rocks to more easily process them and extract valuable metals.
Codelco is the world’s largest copper producer and its decision to use alternative explosives underscores the increasing pressure on mining companies to enhance their environmental standards and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The pressure is especially high for copper mining which has traditionally been more carbon-intensive.
The new explosives are expected to cause a significant reduction in the “Scope 3,” or indirect, emissions, at the Radomiro Tomic mine, which accounts for about 40% of Codelco’s explosive consumption.
The company has said it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Using an innovative product in the explosives market will contribute to fulfilling our commitments to sustainable development,” chairman Maximo Pacheco said in a statement.
“Its production involves 40% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to grey ammonium,” the statement added.
The move to implement lower carbon explosives with the help from manufacturer Enaex is part of the miner’s broader strategy to enhance production and achieve its annual targets, amid falling output of the key industrial metal to a 25-year low.
Radomiro Tomic would be the first mining operation to use Prillex ECO2, an explosive whose main component is blue ammonium nitrate that is produced using advanced carbon capture and storage technologies, which significantly reduces CO2 emissions during the manufacturing process.
(By Fabian Andres Cambero and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Sandra Maler)
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