Key Points
- Chile’s state copper giant Codelco is reported to have produced about 1.332 million metric tons in 2025, slightly above 2024, after a year marked by a fatal incident at its flagship El Teniente mine.
- Copper has surged past $13,000 a ton in London as inventories stay thin and fresh labor risks emerge, including a strike at Capstone Copper’s Mantoverde in Chile.
- Tight supply raises costs across power grids, construction, and electrification, while testing whether big, publicly owned producers can deliver on long-term targets.
Copper’s latest record is being written in Chile, where operational shocks and slow, capital-heavy expansions are colliding with a world that wants more electricity fast.
Local reporting in Santiago says Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, ended 2025 with roughly 1.332 million tons of output, a modest rise from about 1.328 million the year before.
Codelco declined to confirm the precise year-end figure publicly, but it fits the reduced guidance range it set late in 2025 after disruptions at El Teniente.
The July incident at the mine was both a human tragedy and an operational setback. It tightened oversight on how and when areas could restart, and it highlighted the risks of pushing deeper, older assets harder while major upgrade projects move slowly.
Copper Targets Meet Scarcity Reality
Codelco’s leadership says the near-term downgrade does not change the longer-term goal: reaching 1.7 million tons a year by 2030.
The market is daring miners to prove it. Copper in London has moved above $13,000 per ton as visible exchange inventories remain low and analysts warn of deficits in refined supply.
A new spark came from Mantoverde, where Capstone Copper said a strike would begin after talks failed, warning production could run at up to 30% of normal levels during the stoppage. Even temporary losses matter when traders are paying “scarcity prices.”
For readers far from the Andes, the takeaway is simple: copper sits inside almost every electrification plan, from grids and EVs to data centers.
When supply tightens, costs ripple outward—and the pressure rises on producers to deliver with discipline, safety, and transparent decision-making.