Corporate profile

Codelco is an autonomous company, owned by all Chileans. It is the world’s leading copper producer and a driver of the country’s development.

Our core business is to explore, develop and exploit mineral resources and process them to produce refined copper and by-products for their subsequent sale. We carry out these activities through eight Divisions: Radomiro Tomic, Chuquicamata, Ministro Hales, Gabriela Mistral, Salvador, Andina, El Teniente and the Ventanas smelter and refinery.

History

Codelco is celebrating 45 years of existence, which has signified an era of growth, development, innovation and progress for Chile.

After decades of discussion over what should be done with Chile’s primary ore resource, which until then was under the control of foreign companies, a political and social consensus was reached among the Chilean people on July 11, 1971; whereby mineral deposits at Chuquicamata, Salvador, Andina, El Teniente and La Exótica became 100% owned by the Chilean state.

Timeline

Copper is one of the cornerstones for the economic and cultural development of the country.

From the operation of the El Teniente mine in 1904 until 2016 when we reached 1,827 million tons of fine copper production.

Highlights 2016

This year was marked by several events in various areas, such as safety, investments, production, sustainability and costs.