Summary

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Copper
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The 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 2019, El Soldado introduced the Bulk Sorting plant to enhance efficiency by analyzing mineral composition and sorting ore based on copper grade. This innovation has significantly reduced waste processing, water, and energy consumption. Environmental permits for Phase 5, which includes bulk ore sorting, were approved in August 2023. Building on these efficiency improvements, the mine has also integrated Coarse Particle Recovery (CPR), an advanced flotation technology that enhances metal recovery while improving water efficiency. Another groundbreaking initiative at El Soldado is the Hydrous Dewatered Stockpile (HDS) pilot, an aggregate disposal system that facilitates drainage and accelerates tailings consolidation. This process achieves an impressive 82% water recovery rate.

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.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Commodity Production

Commodity	Product	Units	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Copper	Metal in concentrate	t	....	....	....	....	....	....	54,200	52,700	40,500	47,000	35,800

Operational metrics

Metrics	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Ore tonnes mined	....	....	....	....	....	12,128,100 t	11,613,200 t	5,338,400 t	7,339,100 t	5,208,100 t
Tonnes processed	....	....	....	....	....	7,438,500 t	7,598,200 t	7,395,100 t	6,964,400 t	5,965,400 t
Daily processing capacity	....	....	....	....	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Mar 14, 2025
.......................	.......................		Mar 14, 2025
.......................	.......................		Mar 14, 2025
.......................	.......................		Mar 14, 2025
.......................	.......................		Mar 13, 2025

Employees	Total Workforce	Year
......		2023
	......	2021
	......	2019
	......	2017