BHP Billiton is the owner of the mine and manages the open pit copper mine in the Atacama desert, in the north of Chile where the Bioleaching project took place. It is currently the highest-producing copper mine in the world.
Aim of monitoring:
The main aim of the monitoring system for the bioleaching project is to prevent the seepage of liquid acid through the dam (sulfuric and H+ ions that have been formed can leak into the ground). Roctest installed several km of DiTemp distributed temperature sensing cable to measure the temperature over a long distance while detecting abnormal infiltrations. Piezometers were also used to measure pore water pressure in the soil.
| INSTALLATION PERIOD | TYPE OF SENSORS | NUMBER OF SENSORS |
| 2011 | DiTeSt / DiTemp , FISO | 64 |
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