Key facts
- Fontaine said Codelco holds a million hectares of unexploited mining concessions.
- Fontaine said Codelco lacks the management capacity and capital to develop those concessions alone.
- Legislation limiting state-owned companies and a lengthy approval process deter most potential partners, Fontaine said.
- Codelco has already partnered with Rio Tinto and BHP, according to the report.
- Fontaine said the new management team removed the excessive optimism behind inflated production figures.
Codelco's copper production will keep falling unless the Chilean state-owned miner brings in private partners to develop new projects, board chairman Bernardo Fontaine told local radio station Radio Duna, according to a Reuters report published on November 9, 2026.
Fontaine said the company holds a million hectares of mining concessions that remain unexploited and lacks both the management capacity and the capital to develop them. He said partnerships are the only way Codelco can grow, or even maintain, its production levels.
Codelco has struggled to recover output from record lows between 2022 and 2023. Delays in key projects, accidents, low ore grades and a scandal over inflated production figures have held back the recovery, the report said.
Legislation imposing specific limits on state-owned companies has made it hard to build partnerships, and Fontaine said the lengthy and complex process scares off most potential partners. Codelco has nonetheless partnered with Rio Tinto and BHP.
Fontaine said the new management team has eliminated the excessive optimism that led to the previously reported inflated production figures. He said the company will make every effort to reach average annual production of around 1.3 million tonnes.