Cochilco: the state of copper hydrometallurgy in Chile (2023)

Disposition: stated. Read from long search text only on 2026-10-12; the browser did not render the PDF. Single-source.

What: the Chilean copper commission's report on leach/SX-EW copper (the route that makes cathode on site from oxide and secondary-sulphide ores, with no concentrator or smelter). Why: it shows depletion arriving as the loss of a cheaper, simpler process route, not as a shortage of copper, which is the form of James's "when does extraction become uneconomic" question (macro-view).

Key points (search text):

• SX-EW was nearly 40% of Chile's copper in 2009 and 24% in 2022; projected 6.3% by 2034. Chile's SX-EW output is projected to fall 55% to 638 kt.
• The cause given is "agotamiento de los minerales oxidados y los sulfuros secundarios" (exhaustion of oxides and secondary sulphides) as pits deepen into primary sulphides (chalcopyrite). Despite more than fifty years of searching, no commercial process leaches chalcopyrite.
• By 2030 only 19 of 35 leach operations are expected to remain, leaving "considerable" idle leaching capacity. About 94% of Chilean copper is projected to leave as concentrate by 2033.

URL: https://www.cochilco.cl/web/download/593/2023/11565/estado-actual-de-la-hidrometalurgia-en-chile.pdf (search text, 2026-10-12)

Backlinks: macro-view, cochilco-mining-energy-2024, trail-2026-10-12