| Location | |
|---|---|
  Carmen de Andacollo  Carmen de Andacollo | |
| Coquimbo Region | |
| Country | Chile |
| Coordinates | 30°15′0.65″S71°5′38.23″W / 30.2501806°S 71.0939528°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Copper |
| History | |
| Opened | 1994 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Compañía Minera Carmen de Andacollo
|
Carmen de Andacollo is an open-pit copper mine in northern Chile next to the town of Andacollo and about 40 km southeast of the port city of Coquimbo. Teck Resources owns 90% of the mine while state-owned ENAMI owns the rest. [1] The mine opened in 1996. [1] In 2023 it produced 39,600 metric tons of copper concentrate. [1] The ore mined belongs to the hypogene zone of the orebody. [2]
The concentration of property to establish a large mine begun 1975 when Augusto Pinochet gave permission to ENAMI to purchase surface real estate from the inhabitants of Andacollo. [3] Businessman Andrónico Luksic resisted the purchase of his property and he eventually acceded for a swap for a mining property in Los Pelambres. [4] The mine property was put to into an international tender for a company willing to form a joint venture with ENAMI. [4] Noranda Mines showed some interest but ultimately declined. A tender in 1990 ended in a similar maner with Placer Dome showing interest before declining. [4] In 1994 after a new tender a joint venture of Carbon Tungsten and Compañía Minera del Pacífico (CMP) accepted the conditions of ENAMI, beginning the modern mine. [5] At this point the ownership of the mining company Compañía Minera Carmen de Andacollo was as follows; Carbon Tungsten (63%), CMP (27%) and ENAMI (10%), with CMP itself being a joint-venture of steelmaking CAP and ENAMI. [5] [6] Production begun in 1994. [7]
Soon, 63% of shares passed from Carbon Tungsten to Aur Resources, which years later in late 2006 increased its shares to 90% after purchasing them from CMP. [8] [6] In 2007 Aur Resources was purchased by Teck Cominco. [5] [7]