The Chilean mining industry has set aside $26.9bn to develop seven projects—including $10.1bn by Codelco, the world’s top copper producer—between 2019 and 2023.
Chile-based Codelco is developing another mine, the División El Teniente—billed as the largest underground copper mine in the world, and the sixth largest by reserve size—which produced 465,000t (421,841mt) in 2018. The company plans to invest $5.6bn in this mine by 2023.
Compañía Minera Teck Quebrada Blanca, is investing $4.7bn in 2022 to develop Quebrada Blanca Hipógeno, a mine capable of producing 300,000t of copper annually for the first five years of its life.
Spence Growth Option (SGO) is another copper mine slated to receive $3.2bn by 2021; it’s operated by Pampa Norte and owned by BHP. During the first decade of operation, SGO’s incremental production will be approximately 185,000t of payable copper in concentrate and 4,000t of payable molybdenum, the first batch of which is slated for for FY2021, the company said.
Codelco División Andina is investing $1.4bn in 2021 to develop Traspaso Minaplanta, a mining project that will involve constructing several works to enhance operations.
The first phase of Los Pelambres will see $1.3bn invested in 2021, as the project will ultimately comprise two phases with 190,000t daily capacity, according to figures from Antofagasta Minerals, the mine’s developer.
Doña Inés de Collahuasi is developing the Collahuasi Inst Comp mine, which will see output boosted from 170,000t annually to 210,000t.
Compared to November 2018, Chilean copper production contracted by 6.2pc to 504,366t in November 2019, according to figures from Chile’s National Institute of Statistics.