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Chile

El Soldado Mine

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El Soldado Mine

Location: 10 km NE from El Melon, Chile

Regional Office:

Pedro de Valdivia 291 Providencia
Santiago
Chile

Contacts:

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Categories

Summary

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe El Soldado pit is a distinctive hillside-type mine, unlike conventional amphitheater-shaped pits. Options to extend its life beyond 2028 are being explored.

In the third quarter of 2025, SandLix™ reached a significant milestone in its development journey, with the testing of a 15,000-tonne heap prototype at El Soldado copper mine coming to completion.

The environmental permit for the life extension of the operation is expected to be submitted in the first quarter of 2026.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Mitsubishi Materials Corp. 20.4 % Indirect
Mitsui & Co., Ltd. 29.5 % Indirect
Anglo American plc. 50.1 % Indirect
Anglo American Sur S.A. (operator) 100 % Direct
El Soldado is operated by Anglo American Sur S.A.

Anglo American Sur S.A. shareholders: Anglo American plc (50.1%), Joint Venture between Chile’s state-run copper producer Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (29.5%), Mitsubishi Corporation (20.4%).

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Manto
  • Hydrothermal

Summary:

El Soldado, located in Central Chile 120 km northwest of Santiago, is the largest (>200 Mt @ 1.4 % Cu) of the known copper manto-type deposits in central Chile.

El Soldado is a copper manto-type deposit that is regionally strata-bound within volcanic rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Lo Prado Formation. Locally, the mineralisation is discordant with the strata and controlled by trachytic (rhyodacite) feeders, trachytic flows and fault intersections. The orebodies are irregular in shape and size, and show an outer pyrite-rich halo, followed inwards by chalcopyritic zones and a bornite-chalcocite core. The mineralisation is mainly primary and is discordant with the host strata.

Although structurally controlled and discordant at the scale of the mine, it is regionally strata-bound within shallow marine, bimodal calc-alkaline basalt - rhyodacite (extrusive- intrusive) rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Lo Prado Formation, which also contains marine carbonaceous shale and volcaniclastic sandstones. It is generally acknowledged that hydrothermal sulphide base metal deposits in the Andes obtained their metals and sulfur from calc-alkaline magmatic systems.

Several structurally-controlled orebody clusters occur within an area of ca. 2000 x 800 m, 600 m vertical, in a dilational fault jog within a large NS orogen parallel (sinistral) strikeslip shear fault system that was active in the Cretaceous. The orebodies are zoned with pyrite in outer halos or envelopes, followed inwards by zones with abundant pyrite-chalcopyrite, chalcopyrite-bornite and a bornite-chalcocite core with minor hematite in the higher levels and the chalcocite cores; pyrite is relatively more abundant at depth and in the northern half of the deposit.

Samples of massive pyrite and associated chalcopyrite and bornite, devoid of visible bitumen, were selected from the Valdivia Sur, Arauco Norte, Catedral and Morro orebody clusters, most from the pyrite-chalcopyrite halos such as those shown in, or veins. Under close inspection under the reflected microscope and the microprobe, even the most massive pyrite assemblages show remnants of colloidal or framboidal textures. As temperature rose, framboidal structures recrystallized as cubes, yet (at high magnification) their cores preserve the diagenetic framboidal structures. Partial or total replacement of pyrite by chalcopyrite and bornite did not totally destroy the original diagenetic textures.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Water usage

Parameter2024202320222021
Fresh water 69 l/s83 l/s
Recycled water 1.14 l/s
Third-party water 1,475 ML1,212 ML
Groundwater 3,362 ML3,292 ML
Surface water 1,516 ML551 ML

Commodity Production

CommodityProductUnits20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Copper Metal in concentrate t  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe54,200 52,700 40,500 47,000 35,800 
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe12,128,100 t11,613,200 t5,338,400 t7,339,100 t5,208,100 t
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe7,438,500 t7,598,200 t7,395,100 t6,964,400 t5,965,400 t
Daily processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

CommodityUnits202520242023202220212020201920182017
C1 cash costs Copper USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 2.05 / lb **   2.06 / lb **   2.33 / lb **  
** Net of By-Product.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 13, 2026
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 13, 2026
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 13, 2026
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 13, 2026

Workforce

EmployeesTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required 2024
...... Subscription required 2023
...... Subscription required 2021
...... Subscription required 2019
...... Subscription required 2017

Aerial view:

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