DRA has worked with ArcelorMittal at Las Truchas since its initial concept in 2012 and completed the definitive feasibility study for the project.

The Las Truchas revamp project involves building a new iron ore concentrator and transferring the ore feed to the new facility. DRA will assist with the commissioning of the new concentrator and start-up assistance.

Las Truchas is an open-pit mine located 27km from Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán in Mexico. Its concentrator includes one primary crusher, two secondary crushers and three tertiary crushers, one ball mill and one bar mill and two wet magnetic separation circuits.

The operation supplies lump, fines and concentrate products to ArcelorMittal's nearby Lázaro Cárdenas steel mill. Pellets produced at Lázaro Cardenas feed both the mill's blast furnaces and direct reduced iron (DRI) plant. Its aggregate 2020 production of concentrate and lumps totalled 1.6Mt.

ArcelorMittal revealed last month that it plans to increase its use of hydrogen-based DRI plants and explore "circular carbon" methods to decarbonise the steel production process.