Codelco Inflated Copper Output, Demands $14.3M Bonus Return
Chile · Mining
Sunday, May 24, 2026 — 05:00 BRT — By Sofia Gabriela Martinez
Key Facts
—The overstatement:. An internal audit found Codelco overstated 2025 copper output by 26,875 tons, cutting the figure from 1,334,445 to 1,307,570 tons.
—Bonus recall:. Codelco will claw back about $14.3 million in 2025 performance bonuses from roughly 6,300 workers and executives.
—Executive dismissal:. Codelco dismissed budget and management-control manager Cesar Marquez Marquez and sanctioned seven other executives.
—Criminal referral:. Codelco filed a criminal referral with the Ministerio Publico, while opposition deputies asked the Contraloria to open a parallel inquiry.
—Cochilco context:. Copper commission Cochilco said it had suspected the deviations as early as February 2026 and ran its own audit.
—Governance backdrop:. The findings reopen scrutiny of outgoing board chair Maximo Pacheco, with the incoming Kast-appointed board expected to order further audits.
The Codelco copper output overstatement compounds the structural production decline narrative under Pacheco and accelerates the Kast administration’s review of governance practices at the world’s largest single copper producer.
How did the Codelco copper output overstatement happen?
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that an internal Codelco audit detected a 26,875-ton overstatement in copper output reported for fiscal year 2025; the figure decomposes as approximately 20,000 tons of oxides from the Chuquicamata division and approximately 6,875 tons of metallurgical-dust material from the Montecristo waste deposit associated with the Ministro Hales division. The corrected total production for 2025 falls from the originally reported 1,334,445 tons to 1,307,570 tons, a 2 percent reduction.
The Comité de Auditoría, Compensaciones y Ética conducted the internal investigation following an anonymous denunciation received by the Codelco board chair. The audit found procedural failures at the budget and management control level and concluded that the overstated tonnage drove performance-bonus payments that should not have been issued under accurate production accounting. Chief executive officer Rubén Alvarado proposed and the board approved the dismissal of budget and management control manager César Márquez Márquez, with disciplinary sanctions applied to seven additional executives.
What is the bonus recall?
Codelco will demand the return of approximately $14.3 million in performance bonuses paid during 2025 from approximately 6,300 workers and executives at Chuquicamata, Ministro Hales and the Santiago corporate headquarters. The average per-worker discount approaches 2 million Chilean pesos (about $2,150 at the current 930 pesos per United States dollar exchange rate). Union organizations have placed Codelco operations on maximum-alert status, with mobilizations and labor confrontations actively being prepared at the affected divisions.
What is the regulatory response?
Codelco filed or will file a criminal referral with the Ministerio Público, the Chilean prosecutorial service, given that the bonus payments involved committed public resources. Right-wing opposition deputies of Renovación Nacional and the Republican Party officed the Contraloría General de la República, the Chilean comptroller, asking the agency to open a parallel investigation into the possible commission of fraud or malicious alteration of information offenses. Comisión Chilena del Cobre, the Chilean copper commission Cochilco, has been auditing production figures independently since February.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Codelco?
Codelco is the Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile, the world’s largest single copper producer and the principal Chilean state-owned mining company. It operates the Chuquicamata, El Teniente, Andina, Salvador, Ministro Hales, Gabriela Mistral and Radomiro Tomic divisions.
What is the Ministerio Público?
The Ministerio Público is the Chilean autonomous prosecutorial service responsible for directing investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses. A criminal referral from a state-owned company triggers a formal investigative procedure under the Chilean criminal-procedure code.
Who is Rubén Alvarado?
Rubén Alvarado is the chief executive officer of Codelco who proposed the executive dismissal to the board following the internal audit findings. He operates alongside outgoing board chair Máximo Pacheco during the Pacheco-to-Kast-administration transition.
What does this mean for the copper market?
The 2 percent downward revision to 2025 Codelco production is small in absolute terms but compounds the structural production decline narrative. Codelco production has fallen approximately 20 percent in recent years despite cumulative investment of approximately $17 billion since 2022 under the Boric administration framework.
What is the Kast administration response?
The incoming Kast-appointed board has signaled it will commission additional internal or external audits to clarify the scope of any intentionality versus methodological error in production reporting. President Kast delivers the Cuenta Pública address on June 1 with a 66 percent public-approval level for the recent cabinet change.
Connected Coverage
The Codelco audit fits the broader Chilean macro context analyzed in our Chile 2026 economy outlook and connects to the regional commodity dynamic covered in our prior Codelco audit coverage.
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