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. As of 2025 its most productive mines are Radomiro Tomic and El Teniente.
In 2025, Codelco was the second largest copper producing company in the world, and produced 1.332 million tonnes of copper.mining.com 31 March 2025: Codelco regains title as world’s top copper producer
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 identified additional resources of 208 million tonnes of copper, though one cannot say how much of this may prove economic.
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. 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. The tonnage of copper produced in 2023 was 72% of that of 2004 and the decline affects all of Codelcos mining divisions, but originated in large part from geomechanical problems compromising the stability of three mines; El Teniente, Chuquicamata and Ministro Hales.
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.Codelco y SQM acuerdan explotar litio hasta 2060 en Chile 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.
In 2026 the company was hit by a scandal in which it was suspected to have inflated production numbers for 2025. Consequently the Codelco ordered 6322 workers to return bonus payments related to that years performance. Concurrently, KPMG was contracted for a large-scale audit.
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 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. The company is allowed to sell its assets only with the approval of the Chilean Copper Commission, an independent technical agency.
Divisions
Codelco Norte Codelco Norte is a division of Codelco that is made of the Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic mining areas.
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. 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.Closure of Chuquicamata camp 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.La Lucha de los Mineros Contra la Leyes: Chuquicamata (1900-1915) Luis Orellana Retamales
The modern era started when the American engineer Bradley finally developed a method of working low grade oxidised copper ores. In 1910 he approached the lawyer and industrialist Albert C Burrage who sent engineers to examine Chuquicamata. Their reports were good and in April 1911 he started to buy up mines and claims in association with Duncan Fox y Cia., an English entrepreneur.
Unfortunately, Burrage did not have the capital to develop a mine so he approached the Guggenheim Brothers. They examined his claims and estimated reserves at 690 million tonnes grading 2.58% copper. The Guggenheims also had a process for treating the low grade ores developed by E A Cappelen Smith and were immediately interested, organised the Chile Exploration Company (Chilex) in January 1912 and eventually bought out Burrage for US$25 million in Chilex stock.History of Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile
The modern mine Chilex then went ahead with the development and construction of a mine on the eastern section of the Chuquicamata field - it acquired the remainder gradually over the next 15 years - and a 10,000 tons per day leaching plant which was planned to produce 50,000 tons of electrolytic copper annually. Amongst the equipment purchased were steam shovels from the Panama Canal.New York Times article on Chuquicamata A port and oil-fired power plant were built at Tocopilla, 90 miles to the west and an aqueduct was constructed to bring water in from the Andes.History of Codelco Production started on May 18, 1915. Actual production rose from 4345 tonnes in the first year to 50,400 tonnes in 1920 and 135,890 tonnes in 1929 before the Depression hit and demand fell. The Guggenheims gave up control of the mine in 1923 when they sold 51% to Anaconda Copper, which acquired most of the remainder in 1929. Anaconda ran the mine until the 1960s when the Chilean state acquired a 51% holding in the "Chilenization" of the copper industry. In 1971 the mine was nationalised and in 1976 was incorporated into Codelco.
Production from the capping of oxidised minerals, which required mere leaching in sulphuric acid to dissolve the copper and the recovery of the copper by electrolysis was the sole means of production until the 1950s. However their gradual depletion forced the construction of a mill and flotation plant in 1961 to treat the underlying secondary sulphides. These have been steadily expanded until recently the pit was producing over 600,000 tonnes of copper annually, though this has now fallen with the lower grades as the richer secondary mineralisation is also depleted in the three porphyries that make up the orebody.
The present mine is a conventional truck and shovel operation, with a large proportion of the ore crushed in-pit and transported by underground conveyors to the mill bins. The 182,000 tonnes p.a. concentrator is also conventional and is primary crushing followed by SAG mills and ball mills with cyclone classification. The flotation section produces both copper and molybdenum concentrates. The 1.65 million tonnes p.a. of concentrate are smelted in one Outokumpu flash smelter and one Teniente converter with electric furnace and cylindrical slag cleaning followed by four Pierce Smith converters. The blister copper goes to six anode furnaces which feed three anode casting wheels. The anodes go on to the 855,000 tonnes p.a. electrolytic refinery.Tick Fundiciones Chilenas for details
The future of Chuquicamata
Plans to go underground and mine the rest of the Chuquicamata orebody by block caving are now well advanced. At the SIMIN conference in 2007 in SantiagoProyecto_Chuquicamata_Subterranea Codelco engineers detailed a possible future mining plan. The open pit is becoming gradually uneconomic and it was estimated that mining would slow down and stop by 2020. In the meantime the mill will be kept up to its 182,000 tonnes per day capacity with sulphides from Radomiro Tomic and Alejandro Hales. The underground mine will start up in 2018 and when it reaches full capacity of 120,000 tonnes per day in 2030, the balance of the tonnage will come from the Alejandro Hales underground mine. It is estimated that extractable underground reserves below the present pit total 1,150 million tonnes of ore grading 0.76% copper and 0.052% molybdenum.
This mine was, for many years, the world's largest annual producer until it was overtaken by Escondida. It was one of the largest copper mining excavations, producing over 29 million tonnes in total.Yacimientos Metaliferos De Chile, Carlos Ruiz Fuller & Federico Peebles, page 54.Cochilco Yearbook 1986-2005
Radomiro Tomic
The Radomiro Tomic deposit, 5 km north of the main pit, was discovered in 1952 when Anaconda conducted an extensive churn drilling programme to explore for oxidised ore to the north of the Chuquicamata pit. It was named Chuqui Norte but they did not develop it, largely because the technology had not been developed, particularly SX/EW. Two smaller areas of interest were found and the overall results showed that the Chuquicamata complex of mineralised porphyries is no less than 14 km long.
The deposit is covered with some 100 metres of alluvium and in 1993/94 Codelco estimated a resource base for the operation of 802 million tonnes of oxide ore grading 0.59% copper and 1,600 million tonnes of refractory (sulphide) ore. The deposit covers an area of 5 km x 1.5 km.Radomiro Tomic Copper Mine, Chile
Mining started in 1997 and is again a conventional truck and shovel operation followed by crushing, pre treatment and stacking before acid leaching. Copper is extracted by SX/EW. Leached ore is removed by bucket wheel excavator followed by secondary leaching. It is likely that the 'refractory' sulphide ore will be mined and used to keep the Chuquicamata mill full during the changeover to underground mining. The last published production by Radomiro Tomic, from Cochilco, was 379,600 tonnes in 2013.
Northern expansion of Mina Sur