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Chile is known worldwide for copper mining — and wine production. In sev- eral areas of the country, these two activities coexist. For example, a con- centrator facility owned by Chilean- Romanian mining company Coemin, situated at the entrance to Cerrillos Canyon in northern Chile, processes copper ore from the nearby Carola mine. Located 30 km southeast of Copiapó, the mill is in an area that also hosts a number of vineyards, where transient dust from its ore handling and crushing areas is not welcome. The operators of the Cerillos mill had long used preventive measures such as foam sprays and fabric barriers to control those emissions. However, as plant capacity grew, the mill's owners decided to completely enclose its crushing oper- ations — a challenging endeavor, as existing equipment and conveyors were not laid out with an enclosure in mind. The main area encompassed more than 5,000 m 2 (54,000 ft 2 ), in a shape that could only be described as "irregular" following several expansion projects. The owner's initial concept for enclosure included two smaller domes plus a large arched vault. However, local suppliers warned that the spans needed for this concept were simply too large and complex for them to han- dle. As a result, the project architect, Percy Diaz, contacted Geometrica for a proposal. G e o m e t r i c a , b a s e d i n H o u s t o n , Texas, and with facilities in Monterrey, Mexico, has designed, manufactured, a n d i n s t a l l e d l o n g - s p a n d o m e s a n d space frame structures for architec- tural and industrial clients since 1992. The Geometrica design team, after visiting the site, found that the con- cept of a large arched vault had severe d r a w b a c k s . B e n d i n g s t r e s s e s w e r e h i g h , t r u s s d e p t h w o u l d h a v e t o b e drastically increased and structural members would be extremely heavy. C l e a r a n c e s f o r a c c e s s a n d i n t e r i o r space would be compromised. A vault- ed shape would require modifications t o s o m e e x i s t i n g e q u i p m e n t i t e m s , w i t h o u t w h i c h t h e y w o u l d h a v e t o remain uncovered. Equipment modifi- c a t i o n s a l s o w o u l d n e c e s s i t a t e unwanted plant downtime. Geometrica proposed a different solution: a Freedome, its trade name for free-style dome designs. The con- cept prompted Diaz to sketch a free- f o r m p l a n . G e o m e t r i c a s t u d i e d t h e o p e r a t i n g i d e a s Geometrica Concentrates on Coverage 44 www.coalage.com December 2014 Faced with a pressing need to restrict dust emissions from its ore handling and crushing operations, Coemin's Cerillos plant in northern Chile turned to Geometrica to develop an innovative structure design that would enclose a large, irregularly shaped area without significant disruption to existing processes and equipment. The heart-shaped freeform design, shown here in the computer design stage, met the challenges posed by the site's size, shape and layout.