GE Power (www.gepower.com) has been chosen by Southern Copper Corp (SCC) to provide the ‘harmonic filter’ for its Toquepala Concentrator in southern Peru.

The filter will be integrated into the copper concentrator’s power system to improve the power quality.

Eduardo Forcada, SCC project director, said: “The $1.2 billion expansion of our Toquepala mining facility will see the production capacity of the mine’s copper concentrator double from 60,000 to 120,000 tonnes per day.

“The harmonic filter is an essential piece of equipment to help us achieve this ambition.”

Azeez Mohammed, president and CEO of GE’s Power Conversion business, said: “Peru is the world’s second-biggest producer of copper and silver.

"We are excited to be part of the competitive Peruvian mining industry and to work with SCC to make positive contributions that will increase its copper output.”

Grinding mills and their ‘associated’ power electronic equipment, can generate harmonics that adversely affect a power network’s stability inside a mine, resulting in power outages and poor energy efficiency.

Harmonic filtering is an effective way to achieve cost reductions through improved power quality and reduced energy losses; it improves transmission capacity and helps the power network to become more resilient.