Chilean mining company Antofagasta has plans to invest nearly $3.5bn in rapid portfolio expansion to become one of the top ten copper producers in the world.  

The investment will begin in 2025, representing one of the largest contributions the company has made to expand its operations. The majority of the $3.5bn will be spent on operations in Chile and Peru.  

Iván Arriagada, chief executive of Antofagasta, told Diario Financiero on Monday (16 September) that the company was actively looking for copper projects in Peru with a minimum capacity of 50,000 tonnes for ten years or more.  

Arriagada explained the company is expected to increase total investments from $2.13bn in 2023 to $2.7bn in 2024.  

Antofagasta projects local investments of over $7.5bn over the next five years. The company is already working on developing its Nueva Centinela project in Chile that will cost $4.4bn.  

The Nueva Centinela project is expected to increase Antofagasta’s overall production of copper equivalent by 144,000 tonnes per year.  

Antofagasta approved expansion of the Centinela mine in December 2023, as well as the continued development of the Esperanza Sur pit and the deployment of autonomous vehicles at its sites.  

The company also plans to open a desalination plant for its Los Pelambras mine. 

On top of its industry expansion plans, Antofagasta aims to invest $40-$50m a year on maintenance of its projects in Peru, the US and Canada.  

In 2023, Antofagasta acquired a 19% stake in the Minera Buenaventura mine in Peru.  

The company’s projects in the US, however, have suffered a significant setback after the Biden Administration cancelled two long-standing mineral leases for Antofagasta’s subsidiary Twin Metals. The Administration also imposed a 20-year mining moratorium on the surrounding area in northeast Minnesota. 

Antofagasta is the second largest mining company in Chile after Codelco, which is owned by the Chilean Government.  

According to Mining Technology’s parent company, GlobalData, Chile produced 5240.4 thousand tonnes of copper in 2023, the highest amount globally.