Minera Los Pelambres
Antofagasta plc Annual Report 2024
Identity and ownership
- Operator
- Antofagasta plc (Antofagasta Minerals / AMSA)highAntofagasta plc AR 2024 — as of 2024-12-31
- Jurisdiction
- Chile — Coquimbo Region (Choapa Province, ~240 km N of Santiago)highMining-Technology — as of 2024
- Primary commodity
- CopperhighAntofagasta plc AR 2024 — as of 2024-12-31
- Deposit type
- Sulphide porphyry copper-molybdenumhighAntofagasta plc AR 2024 / Mining-Technology — as of 2024
- First production
- 1999 (December)highMining-Technology — as of 1999
- Years in operation
- 27derived from first production year
Disclosed interests
- Interest 1
- Antofagasta plc — 60%highBusiness & Human Rights Centre / Antofagasta AR 2024 — as of 2024
- Interest 2
- JX Metals Corp — 15.79%highBusiness & Human Rights Centre — as of 2024
- Interest 3
- Mitsubishi Materials Corp — 10%highBusiness & Human Rights Centre — as of 2024
- Interest 4
- Marubeni Corp — 9.21%highBusiness & Human Rights Centre — as of 2024
- Interest 5
- Mitsubishi Corporation — 5%highMitsubishi Corporation Mineral Resources Group — Copper Business briefing (13 April 2023) — as of 2023-04-13
Byproduct and co-product commodities
- Byproduct 1
- Molybdenum, gold, silverhighAntofagasta plc AR 2024 — as of 2024-12-31
Reported production
| Metal | Quantity | Basis | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | 319600 t | total | FY2024 (100% basis) | Antofagasta plc AR 2024high |
| Molybdenum | 8400 t | total | FY2024 (100% basis) | Antofagasta plc AR 2024high |
| Gold | 46600 oz | total | FY2024 (100% basis) | Antofagasta plc AR 2024high |
Public technical reporting
JORC (primary) — Antofagasta plc Annual Report 2024 (Ore Reserves & Mineral Resources statement), 2025, filed by Antofagasta plc (LSE) on ASXmoderateAntofagasta plc Annual Report 2024 (Ore Reserves & Mineral Resources statement)
Australia / Asia-Pacific (ASX) · expected language: Ore Reserves / Mineral Resources
Processing and metallurgy
- Process route
- flotation
- Reported recovery
- not stated
- Processing language used in the filing
- none of that family used
- Deleterious elements named
- none stated
Milling and flotation producing copper concentrate (containing gold and silver) plus molybdenum concentrate. Copper recovery % not captured in this pass.
Antofagasta plc AR 2024- Process route
- flotation
- Reported recovery
- not stated
- Processing language used in the filing
- none of that family used
- Deleterious elements named
- none stated
Processing method: Open-pit; concentrator (milling + flotation) at ~190 ktpd after the Phase 1 expansion (desalination plant 400 l/s). Copper and molybdenum concentrates.
Antofagasta plc AR 2024 / Mining-TechnologyAssessment
Los Pelambres is a producing porphyry Cu-Mo operation that in 2024 produced 319,600 t copper, 8,400 t molybdenum and 46,600 oz gold (100% basis), with gold and silver carried in the copper concentrate. Public resource and production reporting characterises grade and output; it is not designed to resolve element deportment by mineral phase, nor where molybdenum, gold and silver report across concentrate, tailings and residue at concentrator scale. Whether recoverable value resists conventional flotation, or reports to tailings, is a testable question that a DETECT characterisation is built to answer. Element deportment by mineral phase is not resolved in the public reporting located, and the figures here are machine-extracted from the cited filings and not yet independently verified.
Screening signals
Each item below is something a cited source states. Nothing here asserts that unrecovered material is present.
The deposit is described as Sulphide porphyry copper-molybdenum. Porphyry systems are documented as commonly carrying molybdenum, gold, silver, rhenium and tellurium as byproduct or unrecovered constituents.
Sulphide porphyry copper-molybdenum
Antofagasta plc AR 2024 / Mining-TechnologyOpen technical questions
Public resource reporting characterises grade and tonnage to a code standard. It is not designed to resolve element deportment by mineral phase. These are the questions this operation’s public reporting was not built to answer.
The resource statement reports contained Copper but no deportment for the molybdenum, gold, silver carried in the concentrate; in which mineral phase that value resides is not resolved by the assays disclosed.
Grounded in: Molybdenum, gold, silver is named as a byproduct or co-product commodity, with no separate grade in the located resource statement. source
The deposit is described as Sulphide porphyry copper-molybdenum; public code-compliant reporting characterises grade and tonnage to a code standard but is not designed to resolve element deportment by mineral phase in this material.
Grounded in: The deposit type is reported as Sulphide porphyry copper-molybdenum. source
How those questions get answered
These are testable questions about element deportment by mineral phase, which code-compliant public reporting is not designed to resolve. A DETECT™ characterisation of a representative physical sample is the instrument built to answer them: it measures which phases host the value and how much is locked. It does not assume a result.
What was sought and not found
- PRIORITY: reserve/resource tonnes and grades not reliably sourced — pull the JORC table from the Antofagasta plc Annual Report 2024. This is why coverage is 'partial'.
- Copper/moly recovery % not captured.
- Mine life stated ~10 years with an EIA submitted to extend operations toward 2051 — confirm current status.
- Figures machine-extracted, not hand-verified.
- Figures are machine-extracted from the cited filings and not yet independently verified by a qualified person (verification_status = machine_extracted_unreviewed). Confirm against the cited filing before external use.