Codelco’s $6.4 Billion in Side Bets, and Why It May Sell Some

Markets

Every Codelco asset that the company does not run itself now sits on a single list worth six and a half billion dollars, and the state copper giant has just hinted it may start selling pieces of it.

Codelco, owned outright by the Chilean state, was long the world’s largest copper producer but lost that crown in 2025 when BHP’s Escondida outproduced its combined divisions for the first time—a structural shift our reporting has tracked as the ‘Escondida sorpasso.’ It is built around six big mines it operates directly. But it also holds a scattering of minority stakes in ventures run by other companies, and those side bets have quietly grown into a small fortune.

A tally published by the Santiago financial daily Diario Financiero puts the combined book value of those holdings at just over six point four billion dollars. The striking part is how lopsided the pile is.

What the Codelco asset map looks like

Almost everything is in two names. According to the Diario Financiero breakdown, about 86% of the value is concentrated in the NovaAndino lithium venture and a 29.5% share of Anglo American Sur.

NovaAndino is the bigger of the two, carried at three point three billion dollars. It is the partnership with the Chilean producer SQM, created in December, that runs the lithium of the Salar de Atacama, the salt flat that supplies a large share of the world’s supply.

The arrangement hands the state the controlling hand, with half the venture plus one share, while SQM brings the operating know-how. For Codelco, it is a way into lithium without leaving its copper roots, on a deposit cleared through more than twenty regulators around the world.

The second giant is Anglo American Sur, the unit that holds the Los Bronces copper mine near Santiago, valued at two point two billion dollars. That stake has just become more interesting, because of a deal sealed in late June.

Codelco and Anglo American closed a joint mining plan for the neighbouring Los Bronces and Andina deposits. By sharing infrastructure across the fence line, the two expect to unlock about two point seven million extra tonnes of copper over twenty-one years, worth at least five billion dollars in value before tax.

After those two, the list drops off sharply. El Abra, the mine Codelco shares with the American group Freeport-McMoRan on a 49% basis, is worth about eight hundred million dollars; everything else, from small exploration plays to a metals-recovery plant, barely moves the needle.

Why the Codelco asset list is suddenly in play

The reason the map matters now is money. Codelco is carrying roughly twenty-five billion dollars of debt, the legacy of a forty-billion-dollar overhaul of its ageing mines, and its core business is under strain. Our reporting has shown the debt pattern is structural rather than cyclical: legal transfer obligations to the Chilean state—70 percent of profits and 10 percent of sales—have continuously prevented Codelco from retaining sufficient capital for reinvestment.

Its own production fell about eight percent in the first quarter against a year earlier, cushioned only by a high copper price that lifted profit and the cheque it writes to the treasury. Output has been stuck near its lowest in a generation, and a recent internal audit found production had been overstated by about two percent, costing a manager and six other executives their jobs.

Against that backdrop, the board has opened a door. It says that in the coming months it will draw up a new strategic plan, and that the review will weigh its cost structure, its project pipeline and a possible “sale of assets” among the options.

That is a notable shift in tone for a company long treated as a national institution rather than a portfolio to be pruned. The logic some in the industry push is simple: Codelco should concentrate on digging copper and cash in stakes it merely holds.

Others warn against selling the family silver. The head of Chile’s mining chamber argued that offloading profitable holdings is no way to fix a debt problem, and that the answer lies in running the mines better rather than parting with stakes in expansion projects just as copper nears six dollars a pound.

What a foreign investor should watch

For an outside investor, the value here is the read-through, not the gossip. A state miner publicly entertaining disposals signals how hard the squeeze has become, even with metal prices high, and which assets carry a price tag if it ever needs to raise cash fast.

Two caveats keep it honest, starting with the denial: the company has firmly rejected any plan to sell the El Abra and Quebrada Blanca stakes that featured in the original reports, insisting neither the board nor its chairman has discussed a decision. A book value is also an accounting figure rather than a market price, so an actual sale could fetch more or less.

The forward implication is the one to track. If the strategic plan does put any stake on the block, the buyers would be the world’s biggest miners and trading houses, and the price they pay would set a fresh benchmark for what Chilean copper and lithium are worth at the top of the cycle.

More: Chile news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the Codelco asset portfolio of outside stakes?

Codelco’s books value the minority holdings it does not operate at about six point four billion dollars, on top of the six mining divisions it runs directly. Roughly 86% of that sits in just two ventures, the NovaAndino lithium tie-up with SQM and a 29.5% share of Anglo American Sur, which holds the Los Bronces copper mine.

Is Codelco actually going to sell any of these assets?

Not yet, and maybe not at all. The board says it will study a possible sale of assets as part of a strategic plan due in the coming months, but it has firmly denied reports that it is preparing to sell its specific stakes in El Abra and Quebrada Blanca, saying no such decision has been taken.

Why would the world’s top copper producer consider selling at all?

It is under financial pressure: Codelco carries about twenty billion dollars of debt from a vast mine overhaul, its own output fell roughly eight percent in early 2026, and a recent audit found production had been overstated. Selling minority stakes is one way analysts suggest it could raise cash and refocus on its core copper business.

Connected coverage: Codelco output falls 8% but profit jumps on high prices and Codelco’s $4.85bn 2025 profit and the Anglo joint plan.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief