The first week of September saw the completion of the lining change at mill 512 at Codelco's SAG Plant, El Teniente Division, and with this, the mining company totaled 700 tons of recycled material between 2023 and 2024, which were sent to the Metso plant, where they are processed for new use.

“We palletize and tie down the linings we remove during the maintenance process with straps. We send them to the Metso plant, where they are recycled and then returned to the Division's operation as new linings,” explains Daniela Riquelme, mechanical maintenance technician at the SAG Plant of the El Teniente Division.

Liners are parts installed inside the mills that process the mineral, protecting the equipment from wear and increasing grinding efficiency. Given the abrasive nature of the process, these must be changed from time to time.

Eric San Martín, head of the Circular Economy Unit of the copper company, highlights that “instead of forming part of the Division’s environmental liabilities, these elements are valued and used. The rubber, on the one hand, is melted and the steel is cast. With this, the new coatings are manufactured, which the Division uses again.”

Progress in sustainability

San Martín adds that last year, under this same program, around 300 tons were revalued, which added to this year's value, totals 700 tons since the initiative was signed.

“This allows us to contribute to the fulfillment of Codelco's sustainability goals for 2030, where we must achieve 65% recovery of our waste,” explains the engineer.

In this area, the El Teniente Division is making steady progress. For this year, the organization had determined that the mining company in the O'Higgins region should reach 48.1% recycling of non-hazardous waste, a figure that was already surpassed in June when it reached 53.8%.

At the corporate level, Codelco has publicly signed sustainability commitments for 2030, with concrete and measurable goals, involving six areas: reduction of greenhouse gases; reduction of unit consumption of continental water; recycling 65% of its industrial waste; ensuring world-class sustainability and safety measures for its tailings deposits; increasing goods and services supplied by local suppliers and local labor; and reducing emissions of coarse particulate matter (PM10) by 25%.