About The Mining Operation

Codelco (Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile or, in English, the National Copper Corporation of Chile) is a Chilean state owned copper mining company. It was formed in 1976 headquarters are in Santiago. It is currently the largest copper producing company in the world and produced 1.66 million tonnes of copper , 11% of the world total. It owns the world's largest known copper reserves and resources. At the end of 2007 it had a total of reserves and resources of 118 million tonnes of copper in its mining plan, sufficient for more than 70 years of operation at current production rates. It also has additional identified resources of 208 million tonnes of copper in multiple regions with new mines developed over many years increasing principal product of cathode copper. It is also one of the world's largest molybdenum producers, producing 27,857 fine metric tons, and is a large producer of rhenium, of which Chile is the world's largest producer. These mines also produces small amounts of gold and silver from refinery anode slimes, the residue from electro refining of copper.