Codelco calls Nov. 5 shareholder meeting on 2024-2025 production inconsistencies
Chile's state miner says the inconsistencies may have inflated output reported by its Ministro Hales and Salvador divisions.
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Codelco, the Chilean state miner, has called a shareholder meeting for 5 November to review production inconsistencies in 2024 and 2025. The board was told the inconsistencies could have artificially inflated output reported by its Ministro Hales and Salvador divisions, according to BNamericas, with the same material possibly recorded as production by more than one division.
Codelco has commissioned an external audit from EY and passed background material to Chile's Public Prosecutor's Office, BNamericas reported. Aquiles Cubillos, the regional prosecutor who has handled a related case since May, confirmed receiving the new complaint, called the facts serious, and said some of those named would be summoned to testify, according to Rio Times. No tonnage or cost estimate has yet been attached to the new case.
In May, Codelco admitted booking 27,000 tonnes of copper in 2025 that had not actually been produced, at the same Chuquicamata and Ministro Hales divisions, Rio Times reported. A forensic audit put that overstatement at 26,875 tonnes, about 2 per cent of annual output, worth roughly $386 million at current prices. Prosecutors opened a criminal case, though no one has been charged, and former chairman Máximo Pacheco has denied wrongdoing. The episode forced Codelco to lower its 2025 output figure and put an estimated $14.3 million in production bonuses to about 6,300 workers and executives under scrutiny; the company fired one executive and disciplined others. The new audit was ordered by Bernardo Fontaine, Codelco's newly appointed chairman, as the miner faces scrutiny over its debt, Mining.com reported.
Codelco, one of the world's largest copper producers, reported fine copper output of about 1.3 million tonnes in 2025, up 0.4 per cent from a year earlier, BNamericas reported. The company is targeting 1.7 million tonnes a year by 2030, though its leadership has said output in coming years is likely to stay close to current levels.
The 5 November meeting is where Codelco's board must formally address the irregularities first flagged on 6 October, moving the matter from internal investigation and prosecutor referral toward a public accounting of scope and responsibility. Until then, the scale of any production overstatement remains unknown, leaving open the question of whether reported Chilean output has overstated the copper actually mined.