The National Copper Corporation of Chile, abbreviated as Codelco, is a Chilean state-owned mining company and the largest copper mining company in the world.
It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalised in 1971.[6] As of 2025 its most productive mines are Radomiro Tomic and El Teniente.[7][8]
In 2025, Codelco was the second largest copper producing company in the world, and produced 1.332 million tonnes of copper.[9][10][11]
In 2007, it produced 1.66 million tonnes of copper, 11% of the world total. It then owned the world's largest known copper reserves and resources. At the end of 2007 it had a total of reserves and resources of 118 million tonnes of copper in its mining plan, sufficient for more than 70 years of operation at current production rates. It also additional identified resources of 208 million tonnes of copper, though one cannot say how much of this may prove economic.[6]
Codelco's principal product is cathode copper. It is also one of the world's largest molybdenum producers, producing 27,857 fine metric tons in 2007, and is a large producer of rhenium, of which Chile is the world's largest producer.[6][12] It also produces small amounts of gold and silver from refinery anode slimes, the residue from electro refining of copper.
Since at least 2004 the production levels of copper Codelco has stagnated or declined, with a significant decline from 2021 to 2023.[13] The tonnage of copper produced in 2023 was 72% of that of 2004 and the decline affects all of Codelcos mining divisions,[14] but originated in large part from geomechanical problems compromising the stability of three mines; El Teniente, Chuquicamata and Ministro Hales.[13]
Following the launching of the National Lithium Strategy in 2023 Codelco has ventured into lithium mining. Codelco created in 2025 Nova Andino Litio as a joint venture with Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM) effectively taking over the latter's lithium brine mining operations in Salar de Atacama.[15][16] In parallel, Codelco partnered in 2025 with Rio Tinto to mine lithium brines in Salar de Maricunga.
History
Codelco's history begins with Law 11,828, of May 5, 1955, that created the Copper Office (Departamento del Cobre) of the Chilean government, approved under President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. During the administration of President Eduardo Frei Montalva, Congress sanctioned Law 16,425, on January 25, 1966, and transformed the Copper Office into the Copper Corporation of Chile (Codelco).
With the constitutional reform that nationalized copper (Law 17,450 July 11, 1971), during President Salvador Allende's government, full ownership of all copper mines and copper fields in the country were transferred to Codelco. The creation of the Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile, as it is currently known, was formalized by decree of April 1, 1976, under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.
Codelco's symbol is based on the alchemical symbol for copper.
The company
Codelco consists of research, exploration, acquisition and development departments. It has five principal operating divisions, Codelco Norte, Salvador, Andina, Ventanas and El Teniente, and a 49% interest in the El Abra Mine. It has several other potential mining operations under exploration and development including the Alejandro Hales, Gaby/Gabriela Mistral, the Toki Cluster, Mocha, and Casualidad projects. All excess profits go to the government, including a 10% tax on foreign currency sales (Law 13,196). In 2007 Codelco paid US$7.394 billion to the Chilean Treasury. Codelco has negotiated a 7-year US$3.0 billion syndicated loan which, with the US$1.96 billion in cash and cash equivalent at the end of 2007[17] leaves the corporation well placed to finance the several new projects that it is investigating.
Corporate governance
The headquarters are in Santiago and the seven-man board of directors is appointed by the President of the Republic. It has the Minister of Mining as its president and six other members including the Minister of Finance and one representative each from the Copper Workers Federation and the National Association of Copper Supervisors.[6] The company is allowed to sell its assets only with the approval of the Chilean Copper Commission, an independent technical agency.[18]
Divisions
Codelco Norte
Codelco Norte is a division of Codelco that is made of the Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic mining areas.[19]
Chuquicamata
Copper has been mined for centuries at Chuquicamata as was shown by the discovery in 1898 of "Copper Man", a mummy dated at about 550 A.D. which was found trapped in an ancient mine shaft by a fall of rock.[20] However mining on any scale did not start until the later years of the 19th century and these early operations mined the high grade veins (10-15% copper) and disregarded the low grade disseminated ore.[21] One attempt was made to process the low grade ore in 1899-1900 by Norman Walker, a partner in La Compañia de Cobre de Antofagasta, but it failed leaving the company deeply in debt.[22]
Joint ventures
El Abra
Codelco sold a 51% interest in its El Abra deposit in 1994 to Cyprus-Amax (now part of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold) who then developed it. Production started in 1996. It is a porphyry copper with an extensive capping of leachable oxide and sulphide mineralisation. Production over the next three years is expected to be in the 152,000 to 168,000 tonnes copper p.a. from the 227,000 tonnes p.a.capacity SX/EW plant. It is planned to exploit the underlying sulphides starting in 2010 which should extend the mine life by over 10 years.[48]
Inversiones Mineras Becrux
Inversiones Mineras Becrux is a joint venture of Codelco and Mitsui where Codelco owns 67.8% of it.[49][50] This joint venture holds a 29.5% ownership of copper mining company
Codelco outside Chile
On July 26, 2012, the Chilean and Ecuadorian government signed an agreement to activate the highly controversial Junin copper mining project, in the Intag area of Northwestern Ecuador. The agreement calls for Codelco, jointly with the Ecuadorian national mining company- ENAMI - to begin exploration activities in the biodiverse Cordillera de Toisan after the second quarter of 2013. The project would be one of the first experience for the Chilean-owned company outside the Chilean deserts where it has most of its mines. It is controversial because Intag is the same area where communities have forced two transnational mining companies to abandon exploration activities due to widespread rejection of mining activities (Mitsubishi subsidiary in 1997 and Canadian Copper Mesa in 2009).[51]
External links
References
- Indonesia officially controls 51.23 percent of Freeport shares: Jokowi The Jakarta Post, retrieved 21 December 2018^
- Cecilia Jamasmie. Freeport, Rio formally yield control of giant Grasberg mine to Indonesia MINING.COM, 27 September 2018, retrieved 1 February 2021^
- The Chilean Mining Renaissance