Codelco takes another step in long path to copper-mine recovery
Codelco posted a slight increase in first-quarter output despite power, weather and maintenance interruptions, as the world’s biggest copper producer battles to compensate for deteriorating ore quality.
Production in the first three months of the year from the mines it operates grew 0.3% from the same period last year, the Chilean state-owned miner said in a statement Friday. Including its share from mines operated by other companies, output rose 2% to 324 000 metric tons.
Codelco is starting to see the benefits of a program to overhaul its aging operations, albeit behind schedule and over budget. CEO Ruben Alvarado has shaken up management and is pushing to finish projects that are key to tapping richer areas of deposits after decades of underinvestment.
“This increase in production was achieved despite the challenges faced during the first quarter, including weather events resulting from the Altiplanic Winter and the national blackout in February, which in total impacted quarterly production by 10 000 tons,” Codelco said in a statement accompanying its results.
The state firm expects its own mines to churn out between 1.37-million and 1.4-million tons this year, up from 1.33-million last year. It hasn’t given a figure that includes mines in which it has a stake, but doesn’t operate. The company is starting to book copper from its recent purchase of a stake in Teck Resources’ Quebrada Blanca mine.
Despite the financial turmoil sparked by US President Donald Trump’s trade policies, Codelco is plowing ahead with investments of as much as $5.6-billion this year.
New projects are starting to come on line, with a slight recovery in production that began last year set to continue in 2025 en route to a return to pre-pandemic levels of output by the end of the decade, Chairman Maximo Pacheco said in an interview earlier this month. At the time, he said Codelco hoped for another year-on year gain this quarter.
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