762 The price of copper has reached record levels, following a sharp and sustained increase at the end of 2025 and remaining elevated throughout 2026 due to strong demand outpacing available supply. While early 2026 saw peaks approaching $6.00 per pound, Cochilco forecasts indicate a more moderate—yet still historically high—average of approximately $4.95 per pound for 2026 and $5.00 per pound for 2027 (Cochilco, 2026). Considering that very short payback periods were achieved even under scenarios with copper prices at roughly half of today’s projections, these updated market expectations further strengthen the business case for timely investment in incremental improvement initiatives, such as the Center Launder Upgrade, making them both compelling and strategically advantageous in the current economic environment. 4.7 Further Enhancing Center Launder Upgrade Performance In some cases, regardless of the center launder retrofit, flotation cells might face challenges with insufficient froth collection, especially at the end of the flotation line. These issues can arise due to complex ores, lower head grades, and the use of larger mechanical flotation cells. To overcome the limitations of existing crowders, the spider crowder upgrade was developed, specifically for cells larger than 200m³. This upgrade is designed to further enhance the effectiveness of the center launder retrofit by implementing it on top of it (Bermudez et al. 2024). The spider crowder features a novel, non-symmetric design that provides more crowding at the tank perimeter and less near the center launder. Additionally, it includes innovative hanger systems for easy installation and removal, facilitating maintenance access. Fig. 12 illustrates the configuration of the spider crowder upgrade (Bermudez et al. 2024). Figure 12 – Spider crowder configuration. The case study results demonstrated substantial performance enhancements in both operational and froth zone parameters. After the spider crowder retrofit in 630m³ flotation cell in copper operation, the crowding was increased by 64%, froth carry rate (t/m²h) by 75%, whereas the froth depth (mm) by 17%. Overall, this retrofit leads to improved process performance, making it a valuable addition to flotation cells equipped with center launders (Bermudez et al. 2024). By reducing froth transport distance and surface area of the cell by an average of 30%, the spider crowder upgrade significantly enhances froth crowding towards the launder, making it valuable for operations with low crowding. Since froth carry rate measures the effectiveness of the froth zone by indicating the proportion of particles being able to be collected as a concentrate (Corona-Arroyo et al. 2021), the substantial increase in froth carry rate positively affects the gained copper recovery. Additionally, the notable increase in froth depth of 17% can be seen to further improve concentrate quality by enhancing froth
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