Lundin spends $215M to boost Chile footprint

Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN) agreed to pay $215 million to boost its majority stake in Chile’s Caserones copper mine and acquire a piece of the nearby Los Helados copper-gold project, strengthening its foothold in the emerging Vicuña mining district.

Vancouver-based Lundin will buy an additional 5% interest in SCM Minera Lumina Copper Chile, which owns Caserones, as well as a 31% stake in the Los Helados copper-gold deposit and a 0.62% net smelter return royalty on the project from JX Advanced Metals, according to a statement issued late Monday. Completion of the deal is expected in April.

The acquisition reinforces Lundin’s copper-focused growth strategy and expands its position in a district emerging as one of the largest new copper camps in the Andes. It will also boost the company’s 2026 attributable copper production by up to 7,000 tonnes, generating immediate free cash flow, Lundin said.

“Overall, we view the announcement as slightly positive given the attractive acquisition price and potential synergies,” TD Cowen mining analyst Craig Hutchison said Tuesday in a note.

Open-pit mine

Located in Chile’s Atacama region, Caserones is an open-pit operation producing copper and molybdenum concentrates, along with copper cathode. The mine produced 132,881 tonnes of copper in 2025 at a cash cost of $2.17 per lb.

Following completion of the deal, Lundin’s ownership of Caserones will rise to 75%. The company first bought a 51% stake in the operation in 2023 and raised it to 70% in 2024.

TD Cowen values Lundin’s 70% ownership of Caserones at about C$2.5 billion ($1.8 billion). This implies a valuation of about C$180 million for the incremental 5% stake.

Possible synergies include scenarios to potentially truck higher-grade Los Helados ore to the Caserones plant, offsetting lower-grade ore, Lundin said.

High-grade breccia

Los Helados sits about 17 km south of Caserones and about 10 km north of the Vicuna district. It’s majority owned and operated by NGEx Minerals (TSX: NGEX), which has a 69% stake.

The property is separate from the Vicuña copper-gold-silver joint venture between Lundin and BHP (ASX, LSE, NYSE: BHP), which straddles the Argentina-Chile border.

Los Helados contains a high-grade breccia core with multiple mineralized zones. It hosts 2.1 billion indicated tonnes grading 0.4% copper, 0.15 grams gold per tonne and 1.5 grams silver for contained metal of 8.3 million tonnes of copper, 10.2 million oz. of gold and 97.5 million oz. of silver, according to a 2023 resource.

Inferred resources stand at 1.1 billion tonnes grading 0.34% copper, 0.1 gram gold and 1.4 grams silver for contained metal of 3.7 million tonnes of copper, 3.6 million oz. of gold and 50.2 million oz. of silver.

Lundin shares rose 3.3% to C$36.43 Tuesday morning in Toronto, boosting the company’s market value to about C$31 billion ($23 billion).