Codelco says no growth at flagship mine for years after accident

Codelco expects output at its biggest copper mine to be stuck around current reduced levels for several years as the state-owned company grapples with the widening fallout from Chile’s deadliest mine accident in decades.

Production at El Teniente will probably remain at about 300,000 metric tons a year through to the end of the decade, a company official told Bloomberg Friday. That’s down from about 356,000 tons in 2024, before a rock burst in July killed six people and forced the company to rethink its plans in new deeper sections.

The prospect of stagnant production at the giant underground mine underscores supply constraints that have helped send copper prices to record highs. Major mines in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also recovering from significant disruptions, while the industry generally grapples with declining ore quality at a time when electrification is pushing up demand for the wiring metal.

Codelco is looking to other mines to meet its goal of a gradual company-wide recovery in output after operational and project setbacks, the official said.

Meanwhile, investigations into the accident at El Teniente are widening. Just as Codelco looked to be putting the tragedy behind it, an internal audit detected “inconsistencies and concealment” in technical reports submitted to regulators over a rockburst incident at the same mine two years earlier.

The audit resulted in the dismissal of three executives; the mining regulator lodging a criminal complaint; and prosecutors ordering the seizure of electronic devices from two of the fired executives in an investigation into whether Codelco bears criminal responsibility for the deaths.

Investigators will be looking into whether reporting breaches surrounding the 2023 rockburst — in which workers were evacuated but no one suffered serious injuries — had any bearing on last year’s fatal collapse.

Chile’s Interior Minister Álvaro Elizalde defended the actions of Codelco’s board and praised measures to address the situation. Still, Codelco may encounter less support under the incoming administration of President-elect Jose Antonio Kast, who plans to audit its finances and operations.

“We envisage that the next four year will be very difficult for Codelco,” said Juan Carlos Guajardo, the founder of the consultants Plusmining.

(By James Attwood)